GIFT   OF 
V\  .  V 


THE   LIFE 

OF 

CHARLES  JARED  INGERSOLL 


THE   LIFE 


OF 


CHARLES  JARED  INGERSOLL 


BY  HIS  GRANDSON 

WILLIAM    M.   MEIGS 
SECOND  EDITION 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

i  goo 


M 


COPYRIGHT,  1897, 

BY     .       c 


PREFACE. 


THE  life  of  Charles  Jared  Ingersoll  should  have 
been  written  thirty  years  ago.  Not  only  would  the 
writer  at  that  time  have  had  the  great  advantage  of 
being  able  to  secure  those  anecdotes  and  personal 
reminiscences  which  so  largely  make  up  the  in 
terest  of  biography ;  but,  in  addition  to  this,  Mr. 
Ingersoll's  name  was  then  well  known  to  all  ob 
servers  of  public  affairs,  and  there  would  thus 
have  been  a  large  number  of  people  interested  to 
know  more  of  him.  Of  course,  in  the  long  stretch 
of  years  since  his  death,  the  vast  majority  of  these 
have  died ;  and  the  period  has,  moreover,  been 
filled  with  events  of  stupendous  importance  which 
have  had  the  result  of  greatly  changing  the  whole 
prevailing  view  of  the  history  of  his  time.  I  know 
well  that  the  generally  accepted  view  to-day  will 
disagree  with  not  a  little  contained  in  the  following 
book,  as  well  as  with  no  small  portion  of  Mr.  Inger 
soll's  political  beliefs,  but  I  trust  that  the  time  is 
near  at  hand  when  at  least  a  patient  hearing  can  be 
had.  I  have  never  been  able  to  believe  that  Clay 
and  Webster  and  that  vast  majority  of  our  public 

5 


PREFACE. 

men  before  the  civil  war  who  consistently  opposed 
the  agitation  of  slavery  were  so  hopelessly  de 
praved  as  some  modern  writers  would  have  us 
believe.  For  my  purpose  it  is  not  necessary  to 
defend  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  I  certainly 
have  no  intention  to  do  so,  as  I  utterly  disapprove 
of  it ;  but  it  does  not  follow  from  its  being  a  bad 
and  thoroughly  harmful  system  that  those  men 
were  right  in  their  day  and  generation  who  so  per 
sistently  agitated  against  it,  with  an  utter  disregard 
of  and  contempt  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
But  I  must  leave  my  text  to  speak  for  itself. 

Whatever  may  be  the  final  verdict  of  history 
upon  all  these  questions,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
the  subject  of  this  biography  had  a  material  in 
fluence  upon  the  development  of  the  American 
character  and  institutions.  Well  known  from  his 
writings  as  an  ardent  admirer  of  his  country  and 
his  countrymen,  long  before  that  view  had  come  to 
be  accepted,  he  was  also  one  of  the  earliest  advo 
cates  of  the  Second  War  with  England,  and  was  a 
leading  man  in  Congress  during  the  War  of  1812 
and  again  from  1841  to  1849,  as  well  as  a  leading 
lawyer  in  Philadelphia  for  over  thirty  years.  A 
biography  of  such  a  man  should  exist;  and,  as 
none  had  heretofore  been  written,  I  took  the  sub 
ject  up  a  few  years  ago.  I  began  by  making 
every  effort  to  find  persons  still  surviving  who 
could  furnish  personal  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Inger- 

6 


PREFACE. 

soil ;  but,  as  he  withdrew  from  public  life  nearly 
half  a  century  ago,  my  success  in  this  way  was 
but  slight.  I  had,  therefore,  to  turn  to  the  public 
records  and  to  private  papers.  A  large  mass  of 
private  letters  was  placed  in  my  hands  by  Charles 
Edward  Ingersoll,  Esq.,  and  some  by  Sydney 
George  Fisher,  Esq.;  I  am  also  under  obligations 
to  Judge  Craig  Biddle  for  letters  of  Mr.  Ingersoll 
to  Nicholas  Biddle,  to  the  late  Miss  Susan  Dallas 
for  some  to  Alexander  J.  Dallas,  and  to  Mrs.  Rich 
ard  A.  Gilpin  for  some  to  Henry  D.  Gilpin. 

All  of  these  I  have  gone  over  with  care  and 
have  extracted  a  good  deal  from  them.  The  large 
majority  are,  unfortunately,  letters  to  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
and  I  have  seen  comparatively  few  written  by  him. 
This  is  much  to  be  regretted,  for  his  letters  are  in 
general  full  of  interest  and  instruction,  as  well  as 
very  vivacious.  I  have  reproduced  some  of  them, 
and  have  also  reproduced  at  length  in  Chapter  IV. 
a  diary  which  he  kept  during  a  visit  to  Washington 
in  1823.  This  latter  was  written  for  the  purpose 
of  sending  to  Mr.  Rush  in  England,  and  gives  an 
extremely  interesting  picture  of  the  social  life  and 
political  struggles  of  the  day.  The  student  of  his 
tory  and  observer  of  mankind  will  certainly  find 
both  pleasure  and  profit  in  the  intimate  view  the 
diary  and  his  letters  in  general  give  of  the  great 
men  and  events  of  a  past  generation. 

I  have  reproduced  two  portraits  of  Mr.  Inger- 
7 


PREFACE. 

soil.  That  one  which  represents  him  as  a  very 
young  man  is  from  a  miniature  owned  by  Sydney 
George  Fisher,  Esq.,  and  is  thought  to  have  been 
painted  when  he  was  about  nineteen  years  of  age. 
The  other  is  from  a  portrait  owned  by  Charles 
Edward  Ingersoll,  Esq.,  which  was  painted  in 
1839. 

I  have  put  all  mere  authorities  in  one  place  in 
the  end  of  the  book,  and  have  referred  to  them  by 
numbers. 

WILLIAM  M.  MEIGS. 
PHILADELPHIA,  1897. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

The  Ingersoll  Family — Jared  Ingersoll  the  Elder,  Co 
lonial  Agent  from  Connecticut — The  Stamp  Act 
and  the  Revolution — Jared  Ingersoll  the  Younger,  a 
Leading  Lawyer  in  Philadelphia 13 

CHAPTER    II. 

Birth — Boyhood  and  Youth — College — Political  Pas 
sions  of  the  Time — "Edwy  and  Elgiva" — Admitted 
to  the  Bar — Goes  to  Europe — Marriage — Politics — 
"Rights  and  Wrongs" — "  Inchiquin" — Early  Po 
litical  Views  and  Development — Politics  of  the 
Period — War  of  1812 — Elected  to  the  Thirteenth 
Congress 26 

CHAPTER    III. 

War  of  1812— War-Hawks — Early  Failures— Naval 
Triumphs — New  England  Opposition  denounced — 
Thirteenth  Congress — His  Course  in — Speeches — 
Answers  Webster  on  Disunion — Collision  with  Mr. 
Stockton  —  New  England  Federalism  —  Not  re- 
elected — His  Position  in  Congress — Peace — United 
States  District  Attorney — Letters  during  the  War  .  68 
9 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 
CHAPTER    IV. 

PAGE 

The  Bar — Wide  Correspondence — Visit  to  Mr.  Madi 
son — Mr.  Monroe  and  the  Loan  obtained  for  him — 
His  Aid  invoked  in  a  Matrimonial  Venture — Letters 
— Diary  from  Washington  in  1823 — His  Industry 
— Public  Orations — Address  on  Reception  of  La 
Fayette — "  Europe  long  ago" 94 

CHAPTER    V. 

Era  of  Good  Feeling — Andrew  Jackson — Mr.  Inger- 
soll  defends  Florida  Campaign — State  Assembly — 
In  Canal  Convention  favors  Railroads — General 
Convention  of  Manufacturers — The  Tariff  of  1828 
— Mr.  Ingersoll's  Views  on  the  Tariff  and  Com 
merce — New  York  Convention  of  Friends  of  Do 
mestic  Industry — Support  of  Jackson — Nominated 
for  United  States  Senate — Charges  against  of  Im 
proper  Conduct  as  District  Attorney — Bank  of 
United  States — Mr.  Ingersoll  among  its  Supporters 
— Pennsylvania  Resolutions  in  favor  of — Plan  to 
settle  Bank  Question — Interviews  with  Cabinet  Offi 
cers — Correspondence  with  Mr.  Biddle — Details  of 
Jackson's  Plan  for  a  Bank — Veto — Letter  to  Sen 
tinel  in  Support  of  Jackson — Bank's  Appeal  to 
Coercion  for  Recharter — Mr.  Ingersoll  opposes  the 
Bank — Bitter  Party  Feeling  and  Proscription  .  .  148 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Banking     System — "Committee     Powers" — "River 
Rights" — Bush-Hill  Address — Convention  of  1837 
— Mr.   Ingersoll's   Course  in — Education  and  the 
10 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Judiciary — Minority  Report  from  Committee  on  Cur 
rency  and  Corporations — Nominated  for  Congress 
— Heated  Campaign — The  Bank  in  Politics — Case 
of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  Son  John — The  Sub-Treasury — 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  Early  Plan  for — Contested  Election 
— Third  Campaign,  and  Election  to  Twenty-Seventh 
Congress 185 

CHAPTER    VII. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  in  Congress — His  District — On  the  Ju 
diciary  Committee,  and  Chairman  of  Foreign  Affairs 
— His  Course  generally — The  Slavery  Question — 
How  the  Problem  presented  itself  in  those  Days — 
The  Abolitionists  were  Disunionists — Mr.  Ingersoll's 
Speech  on  the  Twenty-First  Rule — His  Course  on 
the  Tariff— Tyler— The  Sub-Treasury—General 
Jackson's  Fine — Conflicts  with  Mr.  Adams  .  .  .  224 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

Texas — Settlement  from  United  States — In  Fact  inde 
pendent  of  Mexico  as  early  as  1823 — Anxiety  to  be 
admitted  into  the  Union — Mr.  Ingersoll's  Con 
nection  with  Annexation  as  Chairman  of  Foreign 
Affairs — Extracts  from  his  Diary — Oregon — His 
Committee  again  against  him — Opinion  of  Polk 
and  Buchanan — Disputes  with  England,  and  Mr. 
Webster's  Course — Case  of  the  Caroline — Mr.  In 
gersoll's  Criticism  of  Webster's  Course  in — Mr. 
Webster's  Scandalous  Reply  in  the  Senate — Mr. 
Ingersoll's  Charges  of  Dishonesty  against  Mr.  Web 
ster — Proceedings  in  the  House — The  Committee 
ii 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGE 

controlled  in  Mr.  Webster's  Interest — Minority  Re 
port — Public  Dinner  tendered  Mr.  Ingersoll — Re- 
elected  to  Congress  by  Increased  Plurality — Nomi 
nated  for  the  French  Mission — Defeated  in  the 
Senate — Retirement  from  Public  Life 254 

CHAPTER    IX. 

His  Practice  at  the  Bar — Characteristics  as  a  Lawyer 
— Judge  Sharswood  on — Some  Instances — Qualities 
as  an  Orator — Instances  of  his  Manner — His  De 
nunciation  of  an  Overbearing  Judge — The  John 
Sergeant  Bar  Meeting — Personal  Appearance — 
Habits  of  Exercise  and  Diet — Dress — Eccentricity 
— His  Residences — Fond  of  the  Society  of  Women — 
Buoyant  Spirits — Mrs.  Maury — Religion — His  Amer 
icanism — Belief  in  True  Popular  Government — In 
terest  in  Napoleonic  History — Joseph  Bonaparte — 
Earnest  Advocate  of  Free  Ships,  Free  Goods — 
Declining  Years — Literary  Work — "  Second  War" 
—  ' '  Recollections"  —  Other  Works  —  "  African 
Slavery  in  America" — Mr.  Buchanan's  Administra 
tion — Outbreak  of  Secession — His  Views  upon  the 
Civil  War — Death 292 

TABLE  OF  REFERENCES 335 


12 


THE    LIFE 

OF 


CHARLES  JARED  INGERSOLL 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  Ingersoll  Family — Jared  Ingersoll  the  Elder,  Colonial 
Agent  from  Connecticut — The  Stamp  Act  and  the  Revo 
lution — Jared  Ingersoll  the  Younger,  a  Leading  Lawyer 
in  Philadelphia. 

THE  Ingersolls  of  America  are,  I  believe,  all 
descended  from  two  brothers,  John  and  Richard 
Ingersoll,  who  came  to  Massachusetts  from  Bed 
fordshire,  England,  in  1629.  John,  the  ancestor  of 
the  branch  with  which  I  have  to  do,  was  the 
younger  of  the  brothers,  and  was  born  in  England 
in  1615.  He  lived  under  his  brother's  protection 
at  Salem  for  a  time,  but  moved  to  Hartford,  Con 
necticut,  after  his  brother's  death  in  1644.  In  1655 
he  moved  to  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  and 
about  1665  settled  in  Westfield,  Massachusetts, 
where  he  apparently  remained  the  rest  of  his  life, 
and  where  he  died  September  3,  1684.  He  was 

13 


CHARLES    JARED    INGERSOLL 

three  times  married,  and  had  fifteen  children,  of 
whom  thirteen  were  living  at  his  death.  Jonathan 
Ingersoll,  his  fifteenth  child,  and  the  progenitor  of 
the  Philadelphia  branch  of  the  family,  was  born 
May  10,  1  68  1,  and  was  the  child  of  the  third  wife, 
Mary  Hunt;  she  was  the  daughter  of  Mary  Web 
ster,  whose  father,  John  Webster,  was  one  of  the 
first  settlers  of  Hartford,  and  the  fifth  governor  of 
the  Colony  of  Connecticut.  Jonathan  Ingersoll 
was  a  joiner,  and  lived  at  Milford,  Connecticut,  in 
1698.  He  had  six  children,  among  whom  was 
Jared,  born  June  3,  1722.' 

Jared  Ingersoll  graduated  at  Yale  College  in 
1742,  and  became  a  distinguished  lawyer  of  Con 
necticut.  In  1759  he  was  sent  to  England  as 
agent  for  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  and  wrote 
home  some  interesting  letters  giving  his  impres 
sions  of  the  country  and  of  Pitt  and  other  distin 
guished  men.  He  chanced  to  be  in  the  House  of 
Commons  at  the  time  when  Colonel  Barre  made 
his  well-known  reply  to  Charles  Townshend,  and 
it  is  to  his  report  that  we  owe  the  preservation  of 
this  brilliant  burst  of  oratory.  Townshend,  in  re 
plying  to  Barre,  had  said,  — 


"And  now,  will  these  American  children,  planted  by 
our  care,  nourished  up  to  strength  and  opulence  by  our 
indulgence,  and  protected  by  our  arms,  grudge  to  con 
tribute  their  mite  ?'  ' 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Barre,  who  had  been  the  friend  of  Wolfe,  and 
had  taken  part  in  the  captures  of  Louisbourg  and 
Quebec,  arose  at  once  and  said, — 

"They  planted  by  YOUR  care!  No;  your  oppression 
planted  them  in  America.  They  fled  from  your  tyranny 
to  a  then  uncultivated,  unhospitable  country.  .  .  .  They 
nourished  up  by  YOUR  indulgence  !  They  grew  by  your 
neglect  of  them.  .  .  .  They  protected  by  YOUR  arms ! 
They  have  nobly  taken  up  arms  in  your  defence  ;  have 
exerted  a  valor,  amid  their  constant  and  laborious  industry, 
for  the  defence  of  a  country  whose  frontier  was  drenched  in 
blood,  while  its  interior  departments  yielded  all  its  little 
savings  to  your  emolument.  And  believe  me — remember 
I  this  day  told  you  so — the  same  spirit  of  freedom  which 
actuated  that  people  at  first  will  accompany  them  still.  .  .  ." 

In  the  course  of  his  outburst,  Barre  applied  to 
the  colonists  the  term  "  sons  of  liberty,"  and  all 
this  Mr.  Ingersoll  reported  and  sent  home.  Here 
it  found  its  way  into  a  newspaper  in  New  London, 
and  soon  spread  over  the  country,  while  every 
household  rang  with  the  inspiring  name,  "  Sons 
of  Liberty." 

In  common  with  Franklin  and  other  colonists 
in  England,  Mr.  Ingersoll  opposed  strongly  the 
Stamp  Act,  but  neither  he  nor  his  associates  seem 
to  have  appreciated  the  intense  feeling  in  the 
Colonies  upon  the  subject.  So  complete,  indeed, 
was  their  ignorance  upon  this  point  that,  after  the 
act's  passage,  Mr.  Ingersoll  even  accepted,  with 

•5 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

Franklin's  advice,  a  commission  from  the  crown 
as  Stamp-Master-General  for  the  New  England 
Colonies.  With  this  document  in  his  possession, 
he  returned  home,  and  arrived  at  Boston  in  1765. 
But  he  soon  learned  that  during  his  absence  the 
spirit  of  opposition  to  the  British  claims  had  risen 
to  mountain  height,  and  that,  from  one  end  of  the 
Colonies  to  the  other,  the  people  were  determined 
not  to  pay  the  tax. 

In  his  own  home  in  New  Haven  efforts  were  at 
once  made  to  induce  him  to  give  up  the  office, 
and  in  town  meeting  he  was  "  earnestly  desired  to 
resign  his  stamp  office  immediately."  He  ex 
pressed  a  lawyer's  doubts  whether  there  was  any 
one  to  resign  to,  and  discussed  the  subject,  but  did 
not  do  as  was  desired.  Soon  threats  were  made 
of  injury  to  him  and  his  property,  and  he  then 
decided  to  go  to  Hartford  and  submit  the  subject 
to  the  Legislature.  But  the  people  learned  of  his 
plan,  and  he  had  got  only  as  far  as  Wethersfield 
upon  his  journey,  in  company  with  Governor 
Fitch,  when  he  was  met  by  a  crowd  of  irregularly 
armed  people,  drawn  up  in  military  array,  who 
were  determined  that  the  question  should  not  be 
submitted  to  the  Legislature.  They  well  knew, 
what  he  also  knew,  that  that  body  would  be  much 
slower  to  risk  an  open  breach  with  the  authority 
of  the  crown  than  was  their  own  unorganized  and 
irresponsible  crowd  or  mob.  In  the  main  street  of 

16 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Wethersfield,  therefore,  the  parley  was  held,  and 
he  ,and  the  mob  of  his  fellow-citizens  discussed  for 
some  hours  whether  he  should  resign  or  not. 
Neither  was  convinced,  but  the  crowd  grew  impa 
tient  and  threatening;  and  at  length  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
saying,  "  The  cause  is  not  worth  dying  for,"  signed 
a  resignation  of  the  office,  which  purported  to  be 
his  own  free  act.  He  was  then  urged  to  swear  to 
this,  but  refused  to  do  so,  and  finally  the  meeting 
broke  up,  after  he  had  cheered  three  times  for 
"  Liberty  and  Property."  He  is  said  upon  this 
occasion  to  have  been  mounted  upon  a  gray  horse, 
and  to  have  remarked  that  he  was  like  Death  in 
Revelation,  mounted  on  a  pale  horse,  with  Hell 
at  his  heels. 

Though  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  not  at  any  time  in 
active  opposition  to  the  colonists,  yet  it  is  needless 
to  say  that  after  such  an  occurrence  as  has  been 
narrated  his  career  as  a  public  man  of  distinction 
was  at  an  end ;  and  it  is  a  curious  instance  of  how 
easily  the  chances  of  life  may  sometimes  ruin  a 
man.  Separated  for  a  long  time  from  his  country, 
and  necessarily  unacquainted  with  the  state  of  its 
public  feeling,  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that 
he  should  make  his  ill-starred  decision  to  accept 
the  stamp  office,  and  a  high-spirited  man  would 
then  hesitate  to  throw  it  aside  because  it  turned 
out  to  be  unpopular.  Possibly  the  most  curious 
point  in  the  matter  is  that  in  accepting  the  office 

2  17 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

he  had  acted  upon  the  advice  of  Franklin,  who 
deservedly  ranks  as  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 
patriot  cause. 

In  1766  Mr.  Ingersoll  published  a  pamphlet  on 
the  "  Stamp  Act,"  and  in  1770  was  appointed  Ad 
miralty  Judge  of  the  Middle  District,  and  resided 
for  some  years  in  Philadelphia.  Here  he  was 
looked  upon  with  suspicion  as  a  tory ;  and  he  re 
turned  later  to  New  Haven,  and  died  there  in 
August,  1781.  He  had  married  Hannah  Whiting, 
and  had  by  her  two  children,  James  and  Jared, 
the  latter  of  whom  was  born  in  New  Haven,  Oc 
tober  24,  I749-2 

Jared  Ingersoll  the  younger  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1766,  and  in  1774  was  sent  by  his  father 
to  London  to  complete  his  education  as  a  lawyer. 
There,  at  the  Middle  Temple,  while  the  war  was 
hastening  to  its  outbreak  at  home,  he  studied  law 
under  the  great  legal  lights  of  the  day,  and  it  may 
be  assumed  from  his  later  character  that  the  years 
were  to  him  years  of  hard  and  devoted  study.  He 
did  not,  however,  confine  himself  exclusively  to 
the  study  of  his  profession,  but  took  an  active 
interest  in  literature  and  in  society,  and  formed 
many  acquaintances.  His  son  has  written  of  him 
that  "  Mansfield,  Blackstone,  Chatham,  Garrick, 
and  other  luminaries  of  that  period  were  objects  of 
his  constant  attention,  and  of  his  correspondence, 
and  ever  after  among  the  pleasures  of  his  memory." 

18 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

And  Mr.  Binney  tells  us  that  during  the  summers 
Mr.  Ingersoll  lived  in  the  country,  ten  miles  from 
his  place  of  study,  and  often  daily  made  the  dis 
tance  both  ways  on  foot.  This  writer  also  inti 
mates  that  the  father  had  sent  him  to  London  in 
part  to  get  him  away  from  an  atmosphere  where 
arms  and  rebellion  were  more  talked  of  than  law. 
Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  the  son  none  the  less 
espoused  the  war  when  it  broke  out,  and  left  Lon 
don  for  Paris  about  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  He  passed  a  year  and  a  half  in 
that  capital,  was  kindly  welcomed  at  Passy  by  his 
father's  friend  Franklin,  and  knew  well  Ralph 
Izard,  John  Julius  Pringle,  and  other  distinguished 
Americans  from  various  parts  of  the  country. 
His  son  writes  that  these  acquaintances  had  a 
marked  influence  in  freeing  his  mind  from  ex 
clusively  Eastern  prejudice  and  in  giving  him  feel 
ings  of  a  broad  nationalism. 

During  Mr.  Ingersoll's  residence  in  London  he 

o  o 

had  corresponded  with  Joseph  Reed,  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  who  had  been  in  London  with  Ingersoll's 
father  during  the  Stamp  Act  days,  and  it  seems  that 
Reed  had  advised  him  to  settle  in  Philadelphia, 
on  the  ground  that  there  was  then  a  very  prom 
ising  opening  there  for  a  lawyer  of  talent.  It  was 
probably  with  a  view  to  settling  in  this  new  home 
that  he  sailed  for  America  in  the  autumn  of  1778 
in  an  American  letter  of  marque,  which,  he  was 

19 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

heard  to  say,  came  much  of  the  way  under  water, 
with  a  full  press  of  sail,  to  avoid  disagreeable  in 
terviews.  He  arrived  at  home  towards  the  latter 
part  of  1778,  and  soon  moved  to  Philadelphia, 
where  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  January,  1779, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-nine  years. 

In  his  new  home  he  does  not  seem  to  have  re 
ceived  much  aid  from  Mr.  Reed,  who  had  recently 
been  elected  to  the  Presidency  of  the  State  and 
rather  removed  from  the  bar.  Moreover,  the 
politics  of  Pennsylvania  were  then  in  such  a  con 
dition  as  to  render  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
for  the  President  to  aid  his  young  friend.  All  the 
lawyers  of  any  considerable  ability,  Reed  wrote, 
were  against  the  popular  side;  and  he  warned 
young  Ingersoll  to  beware  of  taking  much  part  in 
politics  or  disclosing  his  sentiments  freely.  But 
Mr.  Ingersoll  needed  no  one's  aid,  and  soon  showed 
such  capacities  as  placed  him  in  time  in  the  van 
of  a  bar  crowded  with  distinguished  men.  Mr. 
Binney,  who  had  been  his  pupil,  and  was  later  re 
peatedly  associated  with  him,  writes  that  he  was  a 
very  sound  and  well-read  lawyer  and  a  most  con 
summate  advocate.  Though  his  power  with  a 
court  was  very  great,  his  special  forte  was  with  a 
jury,  and  the  same  distinguished  writer  regards 
him  as  having  been  "  without  comparison  the 
most  efficient  manager  of  an  important  jury  trial 
among  all  the  able  men  who  were  then  at  the  bar 

20 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

in  Philadelphia."  Errors  he  never  made  in  the 
conduct  of  his  cases,  for  care  and  precision  in 
everything  were  salient  points  in  his  character, 
and  he  always  studied  his  case  most  carefully  and 
prepared  elaborate  briefs.  During  the  preparation 
of  these  papers  he  would  constantly  interrupt  his 
writing  at  his  desk  by  getting  up  and  walking 
about  the  office,  now  and  then  stopping  and 
shaking  his  head,  or  holding  out  a  hand,  as  he 
probably  suggested  to  himself  the  answer  of 
his  opponent,  and  then  once  more  resuming  his 
writing.  The  result  was  a  complete  mastery  of 
every  detail  of  the  case ;  so  complete,  indeed,  that 
the  written  brief  seemed  of  no  use,  and  he  would 
but  rarely  refer  to  it  at  the  trial,  in  order  to  re 
fresh  his  memory. 

"His  oratory,"  Mr.  Binney  says,  "was  of  a  very  high 
order,  .  .  .  clear,  earnest,  logically  connected,  rarely  or 
never  rising  to  the  highest  flights,  but  always  on  the  wing. 
.  .  .  He  never  stumbled  upon  an  awkward  phrase,  nor 
said  a  bitter  thing,  nor  uttered  a  pointless  expression,  nor 
began  a  sentence  before  the  thought  was  ready  for  it  and 
the  language  for  the  thought.  He  was  not  voluble  nor 
rapid.  His  words  did  not  interfere  with  each  other ;  nor, 
in  any  height  of  excitement,  did  his  voice  bray,  nor  his 
arms  lash  the  air,  nor  his  foot  explode  upon  the  floor. 
Neither  was  he  hesitating  or  slow,  as  if  he  was  inquiring 
for  the  next  word,  nor  monotonous,  as  if  he  was  reading 
from  a  stereotyped  memory.  But,  with  just  the  proper 
tone  and  measure,  rising  sufficiently  above  the  natural 

21 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

key  of  conversation  to  give  something  like  air  or  rhythm 
to  his  language,  and  speaking  as  from  his  brain  and  not 
from  his  brief,  he  proceeded,  with  proper  pauses  and  vari 
ations  of  time,  from  beginning  to  end,  without  a  single 
break-down  or  trip  in  word  or  thought.  ...  It  was  im 
possible  for  any  one  to  be  more  clear  and  intelligible  in 
the  whole  design  of  his  speech,  and  in  every  phrase  of 
it  ;  and  equally  impossible,  in  any  part  of  it,  to  detect  an 
instance  or  occasion  in  which  temper,  dignity,  manliness 
of  carriage,  or  gentlemanliness  of  manner  had  been  either 
forgotten  or  studiously  remembered  by  him,  so  natural  and 
habitual  were  those  observances  with  him.  .  .  .  Woe  be- 
tided,"  continues  Mr.  Binney,  "the  adversary  that  took  a 
false  position,  or  used  an  illogical  argument,  or  misstated 
a  fact  against  him.  .  .  .  He  fastened  upon  the  mistake 
with  the  grasp  of  death,  and  would  repeat  and  reiterate 
and  multiply  his  assaults  upon  it,  until  there  did  not  remain 
a  shadow  of  excuse  for  the  blunder." 

The  same  writer  tells  us  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had 
in  a  very  marked  degree  a  peculiarity  which  is  not 
uncommon,  and  which  he  describes  as  the  active 
and  passive  states  of  mind.  During  the  latter  his 
thoughts  did  not  work  rapidly,  and  he  missed  the 
bearing  of  points  even  of  importance.  This  was 
particularly  to  be  noticed  in  his  hours  of  cold 
study  without  excitement;  but  when  he  was  in 
any  way  excited,  and  always  in  court  or  under 
opposition,  his  mind  flashed  into  activity,  and  every 
faculty  worked  in  harmony. 

With  such  marked  capacities  for  the  duties  of 
a  lawyer,  it  was  natural  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  should 

22 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

devote  himself  mainly  to  the  practice  of  his  pro 
fession,  and  he  did  labor  at  it  most  assiduously. 
He  writes  to  his  son  on  one  occasion,  as  if  it  were 
nothing  very  unusual,  that  he  had  already  worked 
ten  hours  that  day,  and  expected  to  work  for  two 
or  three  more.  It  thus  took  up  most  of  his  time, 
and  he  did  not  have  much  left  for  other  duties. 
During  the  Revolution  he  was  once  named  aide- 
de-camp  to  the  Governor  during  some  expected 
military  movements,  and  in  1780—81  he  was  a 
delegate  to  Congress;  in  1790  he  served  in  the 
Common  Council  of  Philadelphia,  and  in  1814-15 
was  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Defence  of 
Philadelphia.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Convention  of  1787  which  framed  the  United 
States  Constitution,  and  was  the  candidate  for 
Vice-President  on  the  Federal  ticket  in  1812. 
The  positions  of  a  legal  nature  which  he  held  were 
numerous.  He  was  City  Solicitor,  United  States 
District  Attorney,  Attorney-General  of  Pennsylva 
nia  from  1791  to  1800  and  from  1811  to  1816,  and 
President  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  Philadel 
phia  from  March,  1821,  until  his  death.  He  was 
also  appointed,  but  declined  to  serve,  as  Chief 
Judge  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the 
Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania  in  1801.  This 
was  one  of  the  appointments  commonly  known  as 
"midnight  judges." 

In  politics  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  a  man  of  moderate 
23 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

beliefs,  conservative,  and  generally  disinclined  to 
change.  He  kept  largely  aloof  from  the  burning 
political  passions  of  his  time,  having  no  taste  for 
them  and  disapproving  them.  He  wrote  on  one 
occasion  that  he  was  a  believer  in  a  representative 
democracy,  but  the  details  of  his  opinions  have 
not  survived.  An  admirer  of  a  central  govern 
ment  possessing  a  good  deal  of  power,  he  was  an 
earnest  advocate  of  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  one 
of  its  framers,  as  a  means  of  uniting  the  discord 
ant  elements  of  the  country  into  one  nation ;  and, 
though  he  probably  by  no  means  approved  the 
extreme  steps  of  the  Federalists,  yet  he  was  far 
more  nearly  in  accord  with  that  party  than  with 
the  Republicans.  Mr.  Binney  writes  of  him  that, 
after  the  great  "  subversion  in  1801,"  he  was  rarely 
found  on  the  side  of  the  majority  in  Pennsylvania. 
Personally  he  was  most  courteous  and  consid 
erate,  and  full  of  the  air  of  good  breeding  and 
manners,  but  rather  reserved,  not  very  fond  of  the 
world  of  society,  and  with  but  few  intimates.  Of 
fair  height  and  very  straight,  with  the  dignified 
manners  of  an  age  that  was  nearly  spent,  he  left 
on  many  the  impression  of  an  early  military 
education,  while  some  thought  him  cold  and 
rather  proud.  He  had,  indeed,  grown  to  man 
hood  and  his  character  and  beliefs  had  become 
formed  before  the  social  changes  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  period;  nor  did  his  beliefs  apparently 

24 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

change  much  with  the  times,  and  he  remained  to 
the  end  a  good  deal  tinctured  with  the  strongly 
marked  class  distinctions  of  what  Mr.  Binney 
calls  the  "  pre-democratic  age."  He  habitually 
wore  a  full  suit  of  black,  or  of  light  brown  or 
drab  in  the  warm  season,  with  knee-breeches  and 
shoes,  and  adhered  to  hair-powder  and  a  cue  long 
after  others  had  abandoned  those  picturesque  but 
troublesome  appendages.  In  his  own  family  circle 
he  was  kindness  itself,  and,  even  when  oppressed 
with  business,  would  endure  interruptions  and 
small  oppressions  from  his  young  children. 

In  his  latter  years  his  financial  affairs  were  a 
good  deal  straitened,  partly,  I  think,  from  burdens 
he  had  to  assume  for  some  not  very  near  connec 
tions,  and  also  from  large  purchases  of  real  estate 
in  unsettled  regions ;  and  he  died  a  poor  man, 
though  narrowly  missing  great  wealth  from  coal 
lands.  He  was  always  a  man  of  the  purest  and 
highest  honor  and  probity,  and  these  qualities 
seem  to  have  been  put  to  some  severe  test,  known 
to  Mr.  Binney,  but  not  to  the  world  generally.  He 
was  a  Presbyterian,  and  in  full  communion  with 
that  church.  He  had  married  Elizabeth  Pettit, 
daughter  of  Colonel  Charles  Pettit,  on  December  6, 
1781,  and  had  four  children, — Charles  Jared,  Harry, 
Joseph  Reed,  and  Edward.  He  died  in  Philadel 
phia,  October  31,  1822,  leaving  his  widow  and  all 
their  children,  except  Harry,  surviving  him.3 

25 


CHAPTER    II. 

Birth — Boyhood  and  Youth — College — Political  Passions 
of  the  Time — "  Edwy  and  Elgiva' ' — Admitted  to  the  Bar 
— Goes  to  Europe — Marriage — Politics — ''Rights  and 
Wrongs" — "  Inchiquin" — Early  Political  Views  and 
Development — Politics  of  the  Period — War  of  1812 — 
Elected  to  the  Thirteenth  Congress. 

CHARLES  JARED  INGERSOLL,  the  eldest  child  of 
Jared  Ingersoll  and  Elizabeth  Pettit,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia,  October  3,  1782.  His  earliest  recol 
lection  of  any  public  event  seems  to  have  been  of 
Franklin's  funeral  in  1790,  but  I  have  not  learned 
much  of  his  earlier  years,  and  even  the  school  he 
went  to  is  unknown.  Among  his  schoolmates  and 
the  playmates  of  his  boyish  days  were  Philip 
Hamilton,  Alexander  Hamilton's  son ;  Albanus 
Logan,  the  son  of  George  Logan ;  Richard  Rush ; 
and  George  W.  P.  Custis,  Mrs.  Washington's 
grandson.  Philip  Hamilton — destined  later  to 
meet  death  in  a  duel,  as  his  father  had  done — 
seems  to  have  been  an  especial  intimate,  and  young 
Ingersoll  was  frequently  at  the  Hamilton  house, 
both  in  the  city  and  on  the  Germantown  Road. 

On  one  occasion  the  Custis  boy  took  him  to  the 
Presidential  residence,  to  witness  the  ceremony  of 
smoking  the  pipe  of  peace  by  Washington  and 

26 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

some  of  his  cabinet  and  some  Indians ;  and  on 
another  occasion  he  dined  at  the  Presidential 
table,  when  there  seems  to  have  been  left  on  his 
memory  an  impression  of  a  dignity  and  decorum 
which  were  positively  appalling.  The  grandeur 
of  Washington  going  to  church,  and  again  going 
out  to  drive  in  his  coach  and  six  with  several  ser 
vants  in  showy  liveries,  were  other  sights  of  boy 
hood  which  were  deeply  impressed  upon  him.  And 
he  once  saw  him  delivering  an  address  in  Congress, 
when  the  personal  dignity  and  grandeur  of  the 
man  stood  out  in  fine  relief.  With  the  members  of 
government  and  leaders  of  political  events  gener 
ally  Mr.  Ingersoll's  father  was  well  acquainted, 
and  the  son  has  left  in  his  "  Recollections"  many 
interesting  and  instructive  views  of  them.  He  has 
written  that  Mifflin,  McKean,  Dallas,  Rush,  and 
Logan  were  often  at  his  father's  house  at  a  time 
when  he  was  still  too  young  to  understand  the 
objections  they  made  to  some  of  Hamilton's 
financial  measures ;  and  in  another  place  he  tells 
us  that  Ellsworth,  Hillhouse,  Baldwin,  and  other 
New  England  lights  were  also  occasionally  made 
welcome.  From  all  these  fountains  of  political 
knowledge  he  must  have  drunk  deep.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  also,  as  one  of  the  facts  surrounding  his 
boyhood  and  youth,  that  his  father  kept  up  some 
of  the  New  England  customs,  and  regularly  had  a 
codfish  dinner  once  a  week. 
27 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

He  was  concerned  as  a  mere  boy  in  electioneer 
ing  in  some  way  at  a  Congressional  election,  the 
date  of  which  I  have  not  been  able  to  fix,  and 
had  vividly  fixed  in  his  memory — as  almost  his  first 
experience  of  public  affairs — the  proceedings  at 
the  meeting  held  in  Independence  Square,  July  23, 
1795,  to  denounce  Jay's  Treaty.  His  father,  who 
had  refused  to  serve  upon  the  committee  for  the 
meeting,  lived  near  the  square,  and  the  son  wit 
nessed  the  gathering  of  the  throng,  and  later  joined 
it  with  his  brother  and  George  Clymer,  and  listened 
with  greedy  delight  to  the  first  stump  speech  he 
had  ever  heard.  And  what  a  speech  it  was  that 
impressed  itself  on  the  boy's  memory !  There 
were  probably  other  orators  upon  this  occasion, 
but  the  speech  of  the  evening  to  our  trio  of  embryo 
statesmen  was  made  by  the  well-known  and  highly 
respected  citizen,  Blair  McClenachan.  A  man 
well  on  in  years,  full  of  gout,  and  with  legs  as  big 
at  the  ankle  as  at  the  knee,  he  hobbled  about,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  tells  us,  in  a  very  lame  fashion,  with  the 
aid  of  a  cane,  and  was  helped  up  to  the  chair  or 
table  which  took  the  place  of  a  platform.  Then 
he  began  his  speech  in  a  hoarse  and  jerking  man 
ner  and  brandishing  his  cane,  without  the  smallest 
semblance  of  oratorical  method,  but  with  his  red 
face  and  indignant  motion  all  so  plainly  proclaim 
ing  his  earnestness  of  purpose  that  his  audience 
applauded  him  to  the  echo.  The  portion  of  this 

28 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

speech  which  impressed  itself  deeply  on  young 
Ingersoll's  recollection  was  the  words,  "  Let  us  all 
join,  then,  fellow-citizens,  and  kick  this  d — d  treaty 
to  h — 11 !"  Later  he  watched  the  crowd  cross  the 
square  and  burn  the  treaty  in  effigy  before  the 
doors  of  the  British  minister. 

At  about  this  time  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  studying 
under  a  private  tutor,  Mr.  Hobson,  and  was  studying 
French  with  a  M.  La  Grange,  but  in  1796  he  matric 
ulated  as  a  Freshman  at  Princeton  College,  rather 
against  his  father's  wishes,  who  preferred  that  the 
boy  should  wait  a  year  or  so  longer.  Among  his 
associates  here  was  again  Richard  Rush,  and  for 
class:mates  and  room-mates  he  had  at  different 
times  John  Forsyth  and  William  Alston,  whose 
brother  Joseph  married  Theodosia  Burr.  Letters 
to  his  father  from  some  of  the  professors  show  that 
they  were  much  struck  with  his  quickness  in  learn 
ing;  but  he  was  still  veiy  young,  was  rather  lacking 
in  application,  and  his  youthful  spirits  were  at 
times  too  strong  to  bear  the  restraints  of  college 
discipline.  His  father,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  man 
whose  very  essence  was  method  and  decorum,  and 
he  repeatedly  urged  upon  his  son*  precision  in 

*  Mr.  Ingersoll's  brother  said  in  his  latter  years  that 
while  he  was  at  college  almost  every  letter  he  received 
from  his  father  wound  up  with  the  words,  "  Remember 
the  honors." 

29 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

everything  and  the  avoidance  of  any  explosions  of 
youthful  merriment.  As  is  usual,  however,  the 
boy's  own  character  had  to  be  his  main  guide,  and 
he  went  on  showing  marked  talents,  but  not  the 
persistent  application  to  his  studies  which  his 
father  thought  needful,  and  occasionally  falling 
into  difficulty  with  the  authorities.  Finally,  in  his 
Junior  year,  some  trouble  of  this  kind  occurred, 
and  Mr.  Ingersoll  left  the  college  at  his  own  re 
quest,  with  a  certificate  that  he  was  "  under  no 
collegiate  censure."  His  father  knew  of  the  trouble 
in  question,  and  thought  the  authorities  had  acted 
unwisely.  He  made  the  boy  decide  for  himself 
\vhether  to  stay  or  ask  to  be  dismissed. 

The  three  years  so  passed  at  college  were  very 
important  ones  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  as  well  as  to  the 
public  affairs  of  the  country.  Not  only  had  he 
during  them  fixed  upon  the  law  as  his  profession, 
but  his  mind  had  already  shown  a  strong  bent  for 
politics,  and  his  father  wrote  him  quite  a  series  of 
letters  upon  the  Federal  Constitution  and  ex 
pounding  parts  of  it.  A  good  many  of  the  letters 
they  exchanged  were  in  French.  The  political 
tempests  of  the  day  raged  with  fury  at  the  college, 
and  Mr.  Ingersoll  and  his  father  frequently  corre 
sponded  upon  public  events.  These  were  the 
years  when  the  country  was  so  near  to  drifting 
into  open  war  with  France,  and  the  son  evidently 
shared  all  the  burning  passions  which  then  pre- 

3° 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

vailed  so  generally  against  that  country.  He  was 
himself  a  subscriber  to  Carey's  Democratic  Journal, 
but  Fenno's  Gazette  of  the  United  States  was  sent 
him  by  his  father;  and  with  this  paper  before  him, 
and  with  the  strongly  Federal  inclinations  general 
at  Princeton,  it  was  almost  unavoidable  that  the 
boy  should  be  swept  along  with  the  intense  patriotic 
passions  of  the  day.  He  tells  us  how  great  a  dis 
appointment  it  was  to  him  at  the  time  that  he  was 
too  young  and  too  small  for  his  age  to  wear  a  sword 
or  an  epaulet,  or  even  the  black  cockade  which 
many  wore  in  their  hats,  at  Cobbett's  suggestion, 
as  a  mark  of  their  anti-Gallican  sympathies. 

Being  thus  out  of  college,  Mr.  Ingersoll  studied 
under  private  tutors  again  for  some  years.  In  the 
summer  of  1800  he  made  a  trip  with  Joseph  Alston 
in  the  latter's  curricle  as  far  as  Boston.  At  New 
York  they  were  much  at  the  Burr  house,  and 
Alston  engaged  himself  to  Theodosia  Burr,  whom 
he  shortly  married.  The  trip  was  made  under 
very  favorable  auspices,  for  both  of  the  travellers 
were  of  the  best  society,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll's  father 
had  doubtless  given  them  letters  to  many  eminent 
people.  Mr.  Ingersoll  tells  us  that  they  travelled 
in  an  open  English  curricle,  attended  by  two  black 
servants  in  sky-blue  liveries.  Some  of  the  events 
of  the  trip  he  described  in  verse  to  his  father,  but 
these  have,  unfortunately,  been  lost. 

At  about  this  time  he  wrote  a  tragedy,  founded 
31 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

upon  the  story  of  Edwy  and  Elgiva,  which  was 
produced  at  the  "  New  Theatre"  in  Philadelphia. 
This  was  certainly  a  remarkable  production  for  a 
youth  of  eighteen  years.  It  was  reviewed  favor 
ably  by  the  Portfolio,  the  literary  authority  of  the 
day,  which  quoted  from  it  the  following  verses, 
spoken  by  Edwy  in  the  last  act : 

"  I  should,  methinks,  the  rather  joy  than  grieve. 
The  hour  of  retribution  now  draws  nigh, 
And  I  have  sworn  to  heav'n  never  to  sleep 
Till  I  repose  beneath  the  laurel's  shade 
Or  Death's  dark  canopy." 

A  prologue  and  epilogue  were  also  printed  in 
the  same  paper,  and  the  issue  of  April  18  wrote, — 

"After  a  short  suspension  of  theatrical  labours,  the  com 
pany  rose,  with  renovated  vigour,  to  the  performance  of 
Edwy  and  Elgiva.  This  tragedy,  new,  American,  and  the 
first-born  of  a  muse  in  her  teens,  excited  great  expectation, 
invited  a  numerous  and  fashionable  band,  and  was  re 
ceived  in  a  most  urbane  and  candid  manner.  From  for 
midable  rows  of  critics,  the  youthful  author  listened  to  no 
bitter  or  malign  remarks,  and 

'  The  bursting  plaudit,  and  the  lifted  hand,' 

frequently  and  loudly  expressed  the  good  humour  and  ap 
probation  of  the  house." 

The  theatre  at  which  this  piece  was  produced 
was  a  leading  one  in  Philadelphia,  and  among  the 
plays  produced  there  at  about  the  same  time  were 
"  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,"  "  The  Heir-at-Law," 

32 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  "The  Point  of 
Honor,"  "  The  Tempest,"  and  "  The  Merchant  of 
Venice." 

In  the  same  year  Mr.  Ingersoll  contributed  to 
the  Portfolio  (September  15)  a  poem  entitled 
"  Chiomara,"  founded  upon  the  story  of  a  German 
princess  who  successfully  defended  her  honor  from 
her  Roman  captor,  and,  as  has  already  been  said, 
he  described  in  verse  some  events  of  his  trip  to 
Boston  with  Alston,  but  I  do  not  know  of  any 
other  essay  of  his  of  a  poetic  nature  until  a  much 
later  period  of  his  life.  He  was  also  at  the  same 
time  studying  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Phila 
delphia  bar  on  June  8,  1802,  when  not  yet  twenty 
years  of  age.  He  had  wanted  to  go  to  South 
Carolina,  to  study  under  Mr.  de  Saussure,  who  had 
read  law  in  Philadelphia  as  a  student  of  Jared 
Ingersoll,  and  who  later  became  the  celebrated 
Chancellor,  but  Mr.  Ingersoll's  father  entirely  dis 
approved  of  this  plan. 

Soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  went  to 
Europe,  going  out  in  the  same  vessel  with  Alex 
ander  Baring,  and  arriving  in  London  probably 
in  July.  He  there  joined  Mr.  King,  the  Ameri 
can  minister, — I  think  merely  as  a  friend  and  in 
no  official  capacity, — and  in  August  made  a  tour 
with  him  and  his  wife  and  a  friend  on  the  Conti 
nent.  Part  of  the  way  they  travelled  on  a  canal- 
boat  drawn  by  horses,  but  generally  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
3  33 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

King  were  in  an  English  chariot  and  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  and  the  friend  in  a  Flemish  cabriolet,  while 
a  courier  and  a  mulatto  servant  rode  ahead  on 
horses;  but  Mr.  Ingersoll  very  generally  exchanged 
places  with  one  of  the  latter,  and  thus  travelled 
much  of  the  distance  on  horseback.  They  visited 
Rotterdam,  Amsterdam,  the  Hague,  Antwerp,  Brus 
sels,  Ghent,  Liege,  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Cologne,  Spa, 
Frankfort,  Mannheim,  Basle,  Geneva,  Lausanne, 
and  Paris.  At  Geneva  he  called  with  a  letter  of 
introduction  upon  Madame  de  Stael,  in  Paris  upon 
the  lady  who  figures  in  the  X  Y  Z  correspond 
ence,  and  in  England  he  had  called  upon  Lord 
Erskine  and  upon  William  Cobbett. 

In  Paris  he  found  much  to  interest  him,  and  of 
course  had  very  great  advantages  from  his  associ 
ation  with  Mr.  King,  seeing  far  more  of  French 
society  than  was  usual  with  foreigners.  The  time 
of  his  visit,  too,  was  one  of  importance :  not  only 
were  the  powers  already  very  restive  under  the 
Peace  of  Amiens,  but  Mr.  Livingston  was  deeply 
engaged  in  the  negotiations  which  led  to  our 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  —  a  fact,  however,  of 
which  Mr.  Ingersoll  knew  nothing.  He  evidently 
made  the  best  of  his  time,  and  saw  a  great  deal 
which  deeply  impressed  him,  and  some  of  which 
he  reproduced  in  an  oration  many  years  later. 
Bonaparte  he  saw  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  on 
one  of  the  review  days,  surrounded  by  all  the 

34 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

brilliant  troop  of  his  marshals,  and  decorating  a 
soldier  called  from  the  ranks  for  the  purpose,  and 
he  was  deeply  impressed  with  all  the  exulting  and 
triumphant  scenes  then  enacting  in  the  new  re 
public.  Shortly  before  he  left,  too,  he  witnessed  a 
sudden  and  apparently  causeless  arrest  by  a  file  of 
soldiers, — a  scene  well  calculated  to  call  his  mind 
back  from  too  great  admiration  of  the  French 
system. 

Probably  about  the  middle  of  November,  1802, 
he  returned  to  England  with  Mr.  King,  and  here 
again  he  fell  upon  events  which  seem  to  have 
deeply  impressed  him  and  to  have  helped  to 
shatter  that  exclusive  admiration  for  English  gov 
ernment  in  which  he  had  probably  been  educated. 
Just  about  the  time  of  his  return,  Colonel  Des- 
pard  *  was  arrested  and  tried,  and  later  executed, 
under  the  charge  of  a  treasonable  plot,  of  which  a 
modern  British  authority  has  said,  "  The  whole 

*  In  a  speech  in  the  Pennsylvania  Constitutional  Con 
vention  of  1837,  Mr.  Ingersoll  narrated  how  horrified  he 
was,  upon  saying  to  Mr.  King  that  he  thought  it  very  hard 
that  Colonel  Despard  should  be  executed  for  treason  upon 
such  light  proof  as  had  been  brought  against  him,  to  hear 
Mr.  King  answer,  "  My  dear  young  friend,  you  know  very 
little  of  England,  and  have  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  the 
power  of  the  crown,  if  you  suppose  that,  if  the  king  de 
sired  this  man's  death,  Lord  Ellenborough  would  not  carry 
his  wish  into  effect."  (Debates,  vol.  iv.  p.  423.) 
35 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

plan  is  so  ridiculous  that  it  cannot  be  regarded 
seriously."  The  real  essence  of  his  crime  seems 
to  have  consisted  in  some  expressions  of  approval 
of  Jacobin  sentiments.  In  England,  again,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  had  very  great  advantages  from  his  con 
nection  with  Mr.  King,  and  was  present  at  the 
final  public  dinner  given  that  gentleman  upon  his 
departure.  On  May  20,  1803,  they  embarked  at 
Southampton  on  the  John  Morgan  for  New  York, 
where  they  arrived  on  July  I,  bringing  with  them 
the  first  news  of  the  Louisiana  treaty  as  well  as  of 
the  renewal  of  hostilities  in  Europe.4 

I  have  been  able  to  learn  but  little  of  Mr.  In 
gersoll  during  the  two  years  following  his  return 
to  America,  and  presume  that  his  time  was  pretty 
closely  devoted  to  the  study  and  practice  of  his 
profession.  In  December  of  1803  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  King, — 

"I  am  jogging  on  my  professional  path.  My  father 
nudges  me  along,  and  the  Governor  has  given  me  a  pub- 
lick  room  adjoining  the  Court,  where  I  have  established 
my  desk  and  arm-chair,  so  that  they  say  I  do  tolerably 
well.  .  .  .  Our  State  rulers  threaten  to  lop  away  that  ex 
crescence  on  civilization,  the  bar  ;  and  Counsellor  Inger 
soll  declares  he'll  go  to  New  York.  All  the  eminent 
lawyers  have  their  eyes  on  one  city  or  another,  to  remove 
to  in  case  of  extremes." 

The  last  sentence  refers,  of  course,  to  the  great 
public  dissatisfaction  then  and  for  a  number  of 

36 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

years  later  prevailing  in  Pennsylvania  against  the 
lawyers  and  the  judicial  system  generally,  and 
which  found  expression  in  numerous  laws  intended 
to  lessen  the  need  for  a  bar  and  to  make  "  each 
man  his  own  lawyer."  Though  it  appears  clear 
that  there  was  very  sound  reason  for  this  dissatis 
faction,  there  can  equally  be  no  doubt  that  the  in 
tending  reformers  aimed  at  impossibilities,  and  that 
the  reform  soon  became  largely  the  sport  of  poli 
ticians.  During  the  early  years  of  the  century 
politics  generally  raged  at  white  heat  in  Philadel 
phia,  and  the  triumph  of  the  republican  masses 
was  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  respectable  ele 
ment,  which  had  formerly  been  in  absolute  con 
trol.  Duane  was  the  leader  on  the  Republican 
side,  and  in  his  Aurora  advocated  the  most 
ultra  measures  and  indulged  in  coarse  and  virulent 
abuse  of  his  opponents.  These,  on  the  other 
hand,  soon  at  bay  and  in  the  position  of  uncom 
promising  haters  of  the  whole  development  of 
public  affairs  in  their  own  country,  were  quickly 
left  behind,  and  became  mere  unceasing  scolders 
at  every  governmental  step.  Even  the  mild  Den- 
nie,  a  man  of  a  literary  turn  of  mind  and  quite 
unfit  for  the  strife  of  public  affairs,  was  unable  to 
restrain  himself  from  reviling  the  triumphant  de 
mocracy,  and  indulged  in  his  Portfolio — nicknamed 
"  Portable  Foolery"  by  the  Aurora — in  an  abuse 
of  his  opponents  which  was  at  times  quite  as 

37 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ribald  as  theirs.  He  was  indicted  for  libel  in  1803 
for  some  denunciations  of  democratic  government, 
and  after  his  acquittal  defined  democracy  in  the 
Portfolio*  as  "a  fiend  more  horrible  than  any 
that  the  imagination  of  the  classical  poets  ever 
conjured  up  from  the  vasty  deep  of  their  Pagan 
Hell." 

These  facts  are  mentioned  here  because  they 
show  the  temper  of  the  times  in  which  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  passed  his  early  years ;  and  there  can,  more 
over,  be  no  doubt  that  the  large  majority  of  the 
associates  whom  he  acquired  from  his  father  and 
from  his  position  in  society  were  members  of  the 
defeated  and  discomfited  Federalists,  and  partook 
to  a  large  degree  of  the  opinion  quoted  from 
Dennie;  but  the  whole  subject  of  the  origin  and 
growth  of  Mr.  Ingersoli's  political  beliefs  will  be 
considered  later. 

On  October  18,  1804,  he  was  married  to  Mary 
Wilcocks,  daughter  of  Alexander  Wilcocks  and 
Mary  Chew.  He  announced  this  event  to  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  King  on  October  7,  in  pursuance  of  a 
promise  long  before  given  to  the  latter,  and  added, 
"  I  arn  a  very  young  man,  and  a  very  poor  one, 
but  I  hope  you  won't  think  I  am  committing  a 
rash  act."  Were  it  not  that  he  was  thus  con 
cerned  in  matrimony  in  the  autumn  of  1804,  I 
should  have  assumed  that  he  was  one  of  the 
Philadelphia  coterie  whom  alone  Moore  excepted 
3* 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

from  his  coarse  abuse  of  everything  American. 
Moore  was  in  Philadelphia  during  that  autumn, 
and  was  very  intimate  with  Dennie  and  his  friends  ; 
and,  as  Mr.  Ingersoll  at  least  had  been  a  friend  of 
Dennie,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  he  was  in  part 
referred  to  in  these  well-known  lines : 

"Yet,  yet  forgive  me,  oh  you  sacred  few, 
Whom  late  by  Delaware's  green  banks  I  knew ; 
Whom,  known  and  lov'd  through  many  a  social  eve, 
'Twas  bliss  to  live  with,  and  'twas  pain  to  leave. 
Not  with  more  joy  the  lonely  exile  scann'd 
The  writing  traced  upon  the  desert  sand, 
Where  his  lone  breast  but  little  hop'd  to  find 
One  trace  of  life,  one  stamp  of  human  kind, 
Than  did  I  hail  the  pure,  th'  enlightened  zeal, 
The  strength  to  reason  and  the  warmth  to  feel, 
The  manly  polish  and  the  illumin'd  taste, 
Which, — 'mid  the  melancholy,  heartless  waste 
My  foot  has  travers'd, — oh  you  sacred  few  ! 
I  found  by  Delaware's  green  banks  with  you." 

From  the  time  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  marriage  he 
doubtless  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  the  prac 
tice  of  his  profession.  His  father's  financial  affairs 
were  presumably  already  somewhat  involved, 
while  he  himself  soon  had  a  growing  family,  and 
was  doubtless  anxious  for  all  the  income  he  could 
obtain.  He  seems,  however,  for  a  much  longer 
period  than  most  men  to  have  been  of  an  ex 
tremely  youthful  appearance,  a  fact  which  would 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  course  not  aid  him  with  clients.  So  far  as  I 
have  been  able  to  learn,  he  had  his  first  case  in 
the  State  Supreme  Court  in  1806,  and  the  year 
before  that  (November  7,  1805)  had  been  ap 
pointed  Clerk  of  the  Orphans'  Court6  by  Governor 
McKean. 

This  appointment  indicates  that  he  maintained 
his  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  the  same  thing 
is  shown  by  another  event  of  a  couple  of  years 
later,  which  is  a  striking  instance  of  the  danger  of 
unguarded  expressions  in  the  heat  of  conversation. 
One  day  in  June,  1807,  in  the  area  in  front  of  the 
State-House,  he  met  John  Barker,  the  sheriff,  and 
Mr.  Jonathan  Smith,  and  fell  to  talking  politics. 
Barker,  it  seems,  was  a  rather  violent  person,  and 
began  to  denounce  the  tories  of  the  Revolution 
in  the  strongest  language.  As  Mr.  Ingersoll's 
grandfather  and  his  wife's  father  had  been 
strongly  tinged  with  toryism,  he  took  up  the  de 
fence,  and  at  length,  in  the  heat  of  discussion,  said, 
"  Had  I  been  a  man  during  the  Revolution,  I 
should  have  been  a  tory ;  many  of  the  best  men  in 
the  country  were  so  then ;  many  of  our  most  ex 
emplary  citizens  now  sided  with  the  mother 
country  at  that  crisis."  These  unguarded  words, 
uttered  in  private  conversation  in  a  heated  argu 
ment,  soon  found  their  way  into  the  Democratic 
Press,  with  just  variation  enough  to  make  them 
much  worse.  Mr.  Ingersoll  immediately  called 

40 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

upon  the  editor,  John  Binns,  for  his  authority, 
but  was  denied  the  information.  He  was  next 
assured  most  positively  by  the  two  gentlemen  to 
whom  he  had  made  the  remark  that  they  had 
not  repeated  it;  and  he  then  wrote  a  letter  to 
the  Press,  correcting  the  statement  made  in  it, 
and  giving  the  true  version  of  what  he  had 
said.  To  this  Binns  replied  in  his  paper,  and 
expressed  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had 
"  forever  deprived  himself  of  the  suffrages  of 
his  fellow-citizens ;"  and  a  correspondent  of 
the  Press  called  upon  Governor  McKean  to 
remove  him  from  office  for  his  toryism.  Nor  was 
this  the  end  of  it;  as  much  as  thirty  years  later 
this  hasty  expression  and  erroneous  judgment 
of  what  would  have  been  his  actions  in  other 
times  was  vamped  up  against  him  in  heated  cam 
paigns,  and  he  was  obliged  to  go  into  explana 
tions  of  it.7 

In  November,  1808,  he  published  a  pamphlet 
entitled  "A  View  of  the  Rights  and  Wrongs, 
Power  and  Policy,  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica  ;"  and  here  he  is  found  for  the  first  time  start 
ing  out  on  his  own  line  of  thought,  unbiassed  by 
the  training  derived  from  his  father  or  by  the 
opinions  usually  held  in  the  circles  in  which  he 
moved  in  Philadelphia.  He  hastened  to  announce 
the  appearance  of  this  publication  in  the  following 
letter  to  Mr.  Rufus  King: 
41 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  PHILADELPHIA  3  December,  1808. 
"MY    DEAR    SlR 

"  One  thing  or  another  has  prevented  my  writing  to  you 
for  the  last  few  days,  or  I  would  have  given  you  due  notice 
of  the  appearance  in  New  York  of  a  certain  formidable 
pamphlet  which  perhaps  has  fallen  in  your  way  unanointed, 
unannealed,  &  before  I  had  an  opportunity  of  softening 
its  introduction.  There  is  no  man  alive  of  whose  good 
opinion  I  am  more  ambitious  than  yours — and  when  I 
publish  sentiments  differing  from  yours,  on  subjects  with 
which  you  are  so  intimately  and  I  so  little  acquainted,  I 
look  forward  to  their  reception  by  you,  with  something 
very  like  the  feelings  of  a  naughty  boy  when  about  to 
appear  before  his  master.  If  I  did  not  suppose  your 
indulgence  equal  to  your  knowledge  and  penetration  I 
should  tremble  for  my  pamphlet  in  your  hands.  Perhaps 
you  have  not  seen  it.  If  not,  let  me  pray  you  to  prepare 
for  politics  you  do  not  admire,  sentiments  you  can  not 
concur  in,  arguments  you  consider  false  and  positions 
wholly  untenable.  If  your  kindness  for  me  has  induced 
you  to  read  it,  believe  that  I  thought  myself  right,  and  the 
same  kindness  will  make  the  apology  for  my  errors. — 
Ever  since  I  had  the  pleasure  of  being  with  you  in  1802  I 
have  entertained  the  same  ideas  on  these  subjects — and  I 
hope  that  their  publication  by  a  federalist  will  be  received 
not  as  evidence  of  his  abandonment  of  his  party,  but  of 
his  attachment  to  his  country  before  his  party.  I  do 
regard  the  conduct  of  England  toward  the  U.  S.  as  un 
just  &  unwise,  and  the  attachment  of  some  men  here 
to  English  policy  and  measures  as  unwarrantable  and 
strained.  Since  the  affairs  of  Pearce  and  the  Chesapeake 
I  am  one  of  those  who  hold  that  government  ought  to  be 
maintained,  and  in  the  absence  of  all  other  aid  in  print, 

42 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

but  what  is  drawn  from  those  foul  sources  the  newspapers, 
I  have  ventured  to  support  and  applaud  their  conduct, 
and  to  recommend  it  to  their  fellow  citizens  in  the  oppo 
sition.  ...  It  would  give  me  infinite  satisfaction  to 
know  that  I  am  honored  with  your  approbation.  It  was 
my  intention  to  have  forwarded  you  a  copy  of  my  pam 
phlet,  but  the  demand  at  first  exceeded  the  printer's 
supply.  .  .  ." 

The  pamphlet  was  principally  a  review  of  the 
decrees  of  the  great  powers  upon  the  subject  of 
neutral  commerce,  and,  though  its  tone  was  mod 
erate  and  fair,  took  decidedly  the  anti-English 
view  which  was  maintained  by  the  Republican 
party.  It  was,  moreover,  filled  with  a  spirit  of 
just  pride  in  his  own  country,  and  criticised  the 
prevalent  tendency  to  admire  everything  English 
at  the  expense  of  America.  Even  the  recognized 
literary  ruler  of  the  time,  whose  pupil  he  had  him 
self  been  to  a  certain  extent,  was  pointedly  referred 
to  for  this  fault  in  the  following  words : 

"There  is  a  class  of  cognoscenti  among  us,  whose  de 
light  it  is  to  decry  what  are  stigmatized  as  Columbian 
effusions,  and  to  extol  every  spawn,  no  matter  how  poor 
and  contemptible,  from  the  presses  of  England.  At  the 
head  of  this  sect  is  a  gentleman,  whose  elegant  acquire 
ments,  amiable  disposition,  and  masterly  pen,  are  alike 
misplaced  in  the  occupation  to  which  he  too  often  stoops, 
of  attempting  to  ridicule  the  dialect  and  customs  of  his 
country.  If  they  were  as  coarse  and  peculiar  as  the 
perusal  of  English  magazines,  and  the  tattle  of  English 
43 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

itineraries  may  have  persuaded  him  they  are,  he  should 
at  least  chuse  gentler  methods  of  correction.  The  rod  is 
an  instrument  little  used  in  this  free  country  ;  and  if  the 
English  were  as  worthy  of  imitation  in  their  literary  walks 
as  Mr.  Dennie  imagines  them,  we  are  not  to  be  lashed 
into  their  idioms  and  orthography." 

This  pamphlet  was  the  first  effort  of  any  Ameri 
can  to  write  a  consecutive  account  of  the  matters 
treated,  and  showed  a  degree  of  originality  which 
will  be  found  exemplified  more  than  once  again 
in  Mr.  IngersolPs  career.  The  Aurora  noticed  it 
favorably,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  reflected 
marked  credit  upon  its  author,  and  contributed  in 
no  small  degree  to  his  entrance  upon  a  public 
career. 

About  two  years  later  (January,  1811)  he  pub 
lished  "  Inchiquin  the  Jesuit's  Letters,"  in  which 
he  again  defended  the  American  character,  and 
inculcated  a  high  degree  of  national  self-respect 
and  admiration.  This  book,  like  many  others  of 
great  note  in  their  day,  has  not  had  the  permanent 
fame  its  merits  deserve,  for  its  interest  was  neces 
sarily  transient,  and  died  out  when  the  purpose 
with  which  it  was  written  was  accomplished.  But 
it  was  the  very  first  American  book  written  with 
this  definite  purpose,  and  that  dared  to  speak 
openly  in  favor  of  our  country,  and  did  not  cringe 
to  foreign  ideas  and  criticisms.  And  not  only  did 
it  not  cringe,  but  it  boldly  asserted  the  superiority 

44 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  the  American  character  in  many  particulars. 
How  strangely  different,  and  how  remarkable, 
therefore,  was  this  view  from  that  held  by  all 
the  acknowledged  literary  authorities  in  Mr.  In- 
gersoll's  own  home  and  throughout  the  country ! 
A  recent  writer  has  well  said 8  that  the  then  inso 
lence  of  Great  Britain  had  upon  Dennie  and  his 
associates  the  effect  of  coercing  them  into  "  timid 
imitation  and  servility,"  while  some  others  it 
"  stung  into  violent  hatred  or  sullen  antagonism." 
Upon  Mr.  Ingersoll  its  effect  was  quite  different, 
for,  while  indulging  in  no  petulant  expressions 
of  hatred  or  antagonism  to  other  nations,  he  told 
his  countrymen  that  they  were  in  general  the 
equals  of  other  peoples,  and  pointed  out  some  re 
spects  in  which  they  were  the  superiors  of  any. 
And  this  was  the  work  of  a  man  not  yet  thirty, 
and  who  had  been  a  pupil  of  Dennie,  and  had 
lived  his  life  in  the  social  atmosphere  then  prev 
alent  in  the  high  society  circles  of  Philadelphia. 
It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  so  young  a  man 
came  to  such  independence  of  thought;  but  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Madison,  announcing  himself  as  the 
author  of  the  work,  he  wrote  that  "  want  of  self- 
respect,  an  unjust  self-appreciation,  has  always 
struck  me,  since  my  return  from  Europe,  as  a 
defect  in  the  American  people."  He  contributed 
what  he  could  in  this  small  work  to  correct  this 
error,  and  to  put  the  country,  as  he  wrote,  "  in 

45 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

good  humor  with  itself,  by  endeavoring  to  expose 
the  prejudices  that  prevent  its  proper  estimation." 
Though  probably  to-day  known  to  but  few,  "  In- 
chiquin"  was  very  widely  read  in  its  day,  and  was 
undoubtedly  an  important  contribution  to  the  de 
velopment  of  the  American  character.  A  sketch 
of  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  the  Democratic  Review  of 
October,  1839,  speaks  of  the  work  as  follows,  and 
probably  represents  *  his  own  feelings  about  it : 

"  It  is  difficult  at  present  to  appreciate  the  independence 
which  such  a  work  then  required.  The  United  States 
were  yet  British  in  almost  every  thing  except  government, 
in  which,  too,  the  Federal  party  desired  them  to  remain, 
without  a  spark  of  American  self-sufficiency.  A  declara 
tion  of  literary,  social,  and  moral  independence  was  almost 
as  bold  a  stroke  as  the  great  declaration  of  political  inde 
pendence,  ventured  in  1776,  which  accomplished  not 
much  more  than  mere  political  severance.  Not  only  was 
every  thing  and  almost  every  thought  colonial,  but  a 
large  party  insisted  that  they  ought  to  be.  To  deny  this 
Federal  dogma — the  idolatry  of  English  every  thing — was 
heresy,  causing,  if  not  physical,  at  any  rate  social  and 
political  dissolution  in  all  the  tortures  of  contumelious  ex 
clusion  from  respect.  Mr.  Ingersoll  led  a  forlorn  hope  in 
the  desperate  encounter  with  this  deep-rooted  prejudice, 


*  I  feel  satisfied,  from  internal  evidence  as  well  as  from 
probability,  that  this  sketch  passed  under  Mr.  Ingersoll' s 
eye  before  publication,  and  I  shall  often  use  it  upon  this 
belief. 

46 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

but  has  lived  to  see  it  considerably  dislodged  and  com 
pletely  rebuked." 

"  Inchiquin"  was  at  first  published  anonymously, 
and  consists  of  a  series  of  letters  supposed  to  be 
written  between  an  Irish  Jesuit  (Inchiquin)  ban 
ished  from  Great  Britain  and  travelling  in  this 
country^  and  some  friends  abroad.  The  style 
is  very  clear  and  vigorous,  and  the  author's  pur 
pose  is  well  led  up  to  by  some  letters  from  Eu 
rope  to  Inchiquin,  in  which  admirable  touches 
of  national  prejudice  are  given,  while  the  letters 
from  Washington  are  full  of  spirited  accounts  of 
the  embryo  capital  and  of  the  tendencies  of  Ameri 
can  literature  and  character.  The  Aurora  found 
nothing  in  it  to  admire,  but  the  Portfolio — the  Amer 
ican  literary  authority  of  the  day — contained  a 
highly  favorable  review ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  British  Quarterly  Review  attacked  it,  and  made 
its  attack  the  vehicle  of  a  truly  scurrilous  article  on 
the  American  character.  Those  who  do  not  ap 
preciate  the  feeling  of  the  English  to  this  country 
at  that  time  might  do  well  to  consult  this  article, 
which  was  thought  to  be  the  work  of  Southey.9 
It  is  redolent  of  the  swaggering  insolence  of  the 
bully,  while  the  stupid  gullibility  of  one  who  wants 
to  believe  everything  bad  is  also  strikingly  con 
spicuous.  Any  false  or  garbled  tale  of  a  scribbling 
traveller  on  our  frontier  is  gulped  down  whole  and 
becomes  typical  of  the  American  character.  Ac- 
47 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

cording  to  it,  "  gouging"  is  almost  an  amusement, 
boys  are  constantly  to  be  seen  in  the  streets  in  a 
beastly  state  of  intoxication,  and  negresses  in  the 
South  have  waited  at  table  absolutely  naked  upon 
their  master  and  his  daughters.  So  scandalous 
was  the  article  that  it  soon  called  forth  replies. 
The  first  of  these  was  written  by  Timothy  Dwight, 
but  was  shamefully  sectional,  in  accordance  with 
the  then  tendency  of  everything  in  New  England ; 
and  J.  K.  Paulding  took  up  the  defence  of  the 
American  side  against  both  the  Quarterly  Review 
and  Dwight.  Upon  his  pamphlet,  which  paid  the 
Quarterly  back  in  some  of  its  own  coin,  the  subject 
seems  to  have  rested. 

"  Inchiquin"  had  not  been  published  a  year  be 
fore  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  nominated  on  the  Repub 
lican  ticket  for  the  State  Assembly ;  and  it  will  be 
necessary  here  to  examine  how  he  came  to  hold 
the  opinions  which  he  held  by  that  time  and  con 
tinued  to  maintain  until  his  death.  As  a  boy  he  had 
of  course  merely  taken  the  opinions  of  his  elders, 
and  he  tells  us  that  he  was  brought  up  to  revere 
Washing-ton  and  admire  Hamilton.  That  his  father 

o 

was  a  mild  Federalist  has  been  said,  and  the  views 
derived  from  his  instructions  controlled  him  until 
after  he  left  college.  He  was  at  this  time  not 
quite  seventeen  years  old,  however,  and  of  course 
had  as  yet  no  opinions  of  his  own.  I  judge  from 
some  remarks  of  his  in  Congress  that  he  was 

48 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

guided  by  his  father's  opinions  until  his  visit  to 
Europe,  and  he  was  evidently  an  opponent  of  Jeffer 
son's  administration.  Some  deep  impression  seems 
to  have  been  made  upon  his  political  views  in 
Europe;  he  referred  at  a  later  date  to  the  intense 
exultation  then  prevailing  at  Paris  over  Bona 
parte's  earlier  victories  and  the  many  early  tri 
umphs  of  the  French  republic,  and  was  evidently 
deeply  impressed  there  with  the  "  revolutionary 
rush  of  thought"  which  the  transcending  events 
of  the  time  swept  over  the  minds  of  many.  When 
he  came  home,  parties  in  his  own  country  were 
largely  distinguished  by  their  sympathy  with  one 
or  other  of  the  great  European  contestants ;  and 
the  opinions  he  had  conceived  in  Europe  would 
unavoidably  lead  to  his  gradual  separation  from 
the  political  set  he  had  been  brought  up  with. 
Moreover,  there  was  the  large  element  of  innate 
belief  and  feelings  which  plays  so  great  a  part  in 
determining  political  opinion.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was 
a  democrat  at  heart  and  a  believer  in  the  capa 
bility  of  the  masses  to  govern,  and  this  led  un 
avoidably,  in  time,  to  his  leaving  the  Federalists, 
with  whom  he  had  been  brought  up  and  had  for 
some  years  acted,  and  joining  the  Jeffersonian 
party. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose,  as  many  do, 
that  democratic  government  sprang  suddenly  into 
the  control  of  this  country  with  the  Revolution. 
4  49 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

The  truth  is  far  otherwise.  Before  the  Revolution 
class  distinctions  were  very  clearly  marked,  and 
the  "  gentry"  of  the  colonial  days  constituted  a 
true  aristocracy,  and  were  to  a  large  extent  the 
governing  class  in  most  or  all  of  the  Colonies; 
nor  did  they  by  any  means  voluntarily  give  up  the 
large  powers  they  had  possessed  in  public  affairs. 
It  is  said  that  in  Philadelphia,  during  the  last  few 
years  of  the  century,  a  toast  to  "  Our  King  in  Eng 
land,"  made  half  in  jest  and  half  in  earnest,  was  a 
common  occurrence ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  for  many  years  after  the  war  was  over  the 
struggle  of  the  descendants  of  the  gentry  to  hold 
on  to  their  powers  was  an  important  element  in 
our  politics.  These  men  thought  that  the  essen 
tial  foundations  of  society  were  being  undermined, 
as  they  saw  the  democratic  element  gain  the  upper 
hand  over  them.  They  undoubtedly  thought  it 
desirable  to  have  a  class  in  the  community  en 
dowed  with  many  of  the  functions  of  an  aristoc 
racy.  In  their  view,  the  class  to  which  they 
belonged,  the  opulent  and  well-born,  those  having 
a  "  stand  in  society,"  were  entitled  to  special  privi 
leges  and  constituted  of  right  a  separate  order; 
and  it  was  to  be  desired  that  they  should  unite 
and  form  a  solid  bulwark  against  the  less  favored 
many.  Those  holding  these  views  adhered  almost 
to  a  man  to  the  Federalist  party,  and  fought  to 
the  death  the  theories  of  popular  government 

So 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

which  were  carried  out  by  Jefferson  and  his  party. 
The  old  Federalists  had  undoubtedly  an  incurable 
disbelief  in  the  masses,  and  would  gladly  have 
deprived  them  of  influence  upon  public  affairs. 
The  proof  of  all  this  is  to  be  found  in  a  thousand 
touches  in  the  correspondence  and  writings  of 
leading  members  of  that  party, — far  too  numerous 
and  scattered  to  reproduce  here, — but  is  well  typi 
fied  in  Ames's  distinct  expression  in  favor  of 
"  separate  orders  in  the  state,"  and  in  the  effort  in 
1787  to  base  the  Senate  upon  life-tenure,  and  to 
compose  it  of  members  who,  as  Gouverneur  Morris 
said,  "  must  have  great  personal  property ;  must 
have  the  aristocratic  spirit;  must  love  to  lord  it 
through  pride."  A  political  orator  said  in  Phila 
delphia  in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  with 
what  was  then  substantial  accuracy,10 — 

"In  truth,  there  are  but  two  names  in  our  language 
which  designate  the  principles  and  views  of  the  two  par 
ties.  I  mean  the  words  democrats  and  aristocrats — the 
friends  of  the  rights  of  the  many  and  the  advocates  of  a 
privileged  few." 

This  sharp  distinction  then  existing  between  the 
parties  is  no  longer  to  be  found,  because  in  the 
lapse  of  years  a  vast  deal  of  what  the  then  Repub 
licans  contended  for  has  become  fixed  as  a  part 
of  our  system,  but  the  impartial  historian  of  the 
future  will  undoubtedly  recognize  that  the  distinc- 
5* 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tion  in  question — which  still  divides  individuals — 
did  then  divide  the  two  great  parties  and  was  very 
sharply  defined.  A  man,  therefore,  who  had  con 
fidence  in  the  political  capacity  of  the  masses 
would  necessarily  leave  the  Federalist  party  in 
time;  but  it  must  have  been  a  severe  task  to  one 
who  lived  in  Philadelphia,  and  whose  associations 
were  with  the  element  which  had  formerly  gov 
erned  there.  Like  all  aristocracies  deprived  of 
their  power,  this  one  only  grew  more  firm  in  its 
beliefs  by  defeat,  and  remained  blindly  unconscious 
that  the  world  had  gone  on  and  left  it  behind. 
First  defeated  in  1776  at  the  time  of  the  overthrow 
of  Dickinson  and  the  moderates,  the  Pennsylvania 
aristocracy  was  absolutely  crushed  only  by  the 
election  of  Snyder  as  Governor  in  1808;  but  it 
still  had  for  many  years  a  controlling  voice  in  the 
highest  social  stratum  of  Philadelphia.  And  there 
is  no  doubt  that  it  looked  upon  any  one  as  hope 
lessly  bad  and  to  a  considerable  extent  exiled 
him  who  ventured  in  any  way  to  give  aid  or  coun 
tenance  to  the  onward  surge  of  the  democratic 
masses. 

It  is  difficult  to  picture  this  state  of  feeling, 
and  only  a  few  touches  can  be  given,  from  which 
the  reader  must  for  himself  construct  an  idea  of 
the  beliefs  and  sentiments  prevailing  among  the 
dethroned  and  decaying  aristocracy.  We  are, 
for  example,  told  that  when  the  "  Pennsylvania 

52 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

Dutchman"  Snyder,  who  was  entirely  ignorant  of 
Latin  and  Greek,  was  nominated  for  Governor  in 
1808  against  the  Hon.  James  Ross,  the  pol 
ished  gentleman  and  classical  scholar,  the  city 
aristocracy  merely  laughed  in  derision,  and  was 
only  awakened  by  Snyder's  triumphant  election 
to  the  consciousness  that  it  was  possible  in  the 
nature  of  things  for  a  country  store-keeper  and 
farmer  to  be  chosen  Governor  in  preference  to 
an  "  Hon,"  ex-Senator  of  the  United  States  and 
member  of  the  privileged  classes.  And  the  good 
Dr.  Rush,  whose  associations  were  with  this  same 
city  aristocracy,  wrote  his  son  Richard  in  1812, 
warning  him  that  he  was  suspected  by  the  "  citi 
zens  of  Philadelphia"  of  writing  for  Binns's  paper 
(which,  with  the  Aurora,  was  then  the  leading 
Democratic  paper  of  the  city),  and  telling  him 
that  a  reference  to  him  by  Bronson  (the  editor  of 
the  Gazette  of  the  United  States)  had  "  spread  a 
gloom  over  the  whole  family."  The  doctor's  letter 
shows  that  in  his  mind  a  few  old  families  composed 
the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  great  masses 
of  republicans  were  as  much  forgotten  or  ignored 
by  him  as  if  they  had  not  existed.  And  Binns 
tells  a  pregnant  story  of  how  the  old-time  aristo 
cratic  directors  of  the  Bank  of  Pennsylvania  had 
expected  a  scene  and  been  prepared  for  it,  when  the 
"  notorious  John  Binns"  was  elected  by  the  Legis 
lature  a  member  of  the  board  in  the  earlier  days 

53 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  Democratic  ascendancy.11  One  can  feel,  in 
view  of  such  instances  of  ingrained  prejudice,  that 
there  is  a  world  of  meaning  in  the  expressions 
used  by  Mr.  Binney,  when  he  speaks  of  the  "  great 
subversion  in  1801"  and  of  the  "  predemocratic 
age,"  or  in  that  already  quoted  above  from  a 
sketch  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  which  tells  us  how  de 
nial  of  the  city  aristocracy's  political  dogmas 
was  "  heresy,  causing,  if  not  physical,  at  any  rate 
social  and  political  dissolution  in  all  the  tortures 
of  contumelious  exclusion  from  respect." 

It  was  against  such  prejudices  as  these,  enter 
tained  well-nigh  by  all  those  with  whom  his  lot 
in  life  was  cast,  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  to  contend, 
in  common  with  the  others  who,  like  him,  had  an 
ingrained  belief  in  the  new  gospel  of  popular  gov 
ernment.  Richard  Rush  had  the  same  battle  to 
go  through  with,  and  his  letters  show  how  dis 
gusted  he  was  with  the  atmosphere  about  him  in 
Philadelphia  and  how  anxious  to  move  away  from 
it.  Binns  tells  a  story  12  of  the  difficulty  he  and 
Snyder  had  even  to  discover  any  Democratic  law 
yer  whom  they  could  appoint  Attorney-General ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Ingersoll,  Mr. 
Rush,  and  the  few  who  shared  their  opinions  had 
to  endure  the  breaking  up  of  numerous  friendships, 
and  went  about  as  marked  men,  as  long  as  the 
older  generation  survived ;  nor  did  it  end  then ; 
in  Mr.  Ingersoll's  case,  at  least,  though  he  was 

54 


CHARLES   JAPvED   INGERSOLL 

much  liked  by  many,  yet  there  was  always  a  sub 
stratum  remaining  of  dislike  to  him  among  a  very 
large  class,  and  he  was  accused  of  deserting  the 
ranks  of  society  to  which  he  had  been  born. 

The  politics  of  Philadelphia  *  in  the  early  years 
of  the  century  were  very  confused  and  have  not 
been  much  studied,  and  it  has  been  difficult  to 
learn  in  just  what  way  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  first 
launched  upon  his  political  career.  It  has  been 
seen  that  he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Orphans' 
Court  by  Governor  McKean  in  1805.  McKean 
had  been  triumphantly  elected  Governor  by  the 
Republicans  for  the  first  time  in  1799, — one  year 
before  Mr.  Jefferson's  election  as  President, — but 
his  course  had  not  satisfied  Duane,  Leib,  and  other 
extreme  members  of  the  party.  He  was,  however, 
re-elected  with  their  aid  in  1802,  but  in  1805  they 
broke  from  him,  nominated  Snyder,  and  advocated 
a  constitutional  convention ;  the  moderate  Repub 
licans,  headed  by  Dallas,  then  formed  the  Society 
of  Constitutional  Republicans  opposed  to  the  con 
vention,  nominated  McKean,  and  appealed  to  all 
citizens  for  their  support.  The  Federalists  united 


*  I  tried  for  a  long  time  to  find  the  details  of  Mr.  Inger 
soll' s  entrance  into  politics,  but  without  success.  The 
material  found  in  this  effort  was  used  in  writing  an  article 
on  "  Pennsylvania  Politics  Early  in  this  Century,"  printed 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine,  vol.  xvii.  p.  462. 

55 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

with  them,  and  McKean  was  re-elected  after  a 
bitter  canvass.  It  may  safely  be  assumed  from 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  appointment  following  upon  this 
election  that  he  had  acted  with  the  Constitutional 
Republicans,  or  "Quids,"  or  "Third  Party  Men," 
as  they  were  variously  called.  But  he  was  not  at 
this  time  a  Republican.  Immediately  after  the 
success  of  the  Quids,  a  special  election  was  held 
to  fill  a  vacancy  in  a  State  office,  and  the  Consti 
tutionalists  broke  to  pieces  at  once,  their  numerous 
factions  making  as  many  nominations  for  the 
office.  In  these  factional  troubles,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  one  of  a  committee  of  "  Friends  of  the  Con 
stitution"  who  endorsed  John  Hallowell,  who  had 
already  been  put  in  nomination  by  Federalists. 
This  is  the  first  step  in  practical  politics  in  which 
I  have  found  him  engaged.  The  following  two 
letters  from  him  to  Mr.  King  may  serve  to  show  a 
little  of  the  atmosphere  in  which  he  was  living : 

"  PHILADELPHIA,  October  8,  1809. 

"Mv  DEAR  SIR, — Upon  looking  over  my  letter  files,  I 
find  that  our  correspondence  has  been  at  a  stand  ever 
since  last  December — which  indeed  it  might  well  be  for 
anything  I  have  to  communicate — except  the  assurances 
which  I  feel  it  almost  a  duty  and  quite  a  pleasure  to 
reiterate  of  the  constant  regard  I  bear  to  you  and  your 
family.  Our  foreign  relations  and  domestic  politics,  tho' 
abundantly  strange,  have  long  ceased  to  be  interesting. 
Nothing  but  perplexities  abroad — nothing  but  democracy 

56 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

at  home — and  tho'  it  is  my  misfortune  not  to  coincide  in 
opinion  with  you  as  to  the  root  or  remedy  of  our  foreign 
evils,  yet  I  am  sure  we  concur  equally  in  deploring  them, 
and  in  deprecating  that  languid  internal  system  which 
endures  and  protracts  them.  I  cannot  but  believe,  per 
haps  merely  because  I  hope,  that  Mr.  Madison  will  display 
a  more  manly  and  magnanimous  policy  than  either  Adams 
or  Jefferson,  and  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant,  when,  if 
we  are  not  rescued  from  embarrassments,  we  shall  at  least 
rise  from  the  political  palsy  under  which  we  are  groaning 
at  present  into  something  like  national  action  and  dignity. 
Perhaps  the  non-ratification  of  Mr.  Erskine's  adjustment, 
which  we  have  all  so  much  regretted,  may  be  the  means 
of  more  benefit  than  its  perfection  would  have  been — for 
if,  as  it  is  confidently  said,  we  are  to  have  a  treaty  or  an 
accommodation  with  France,  owing  to  the  threatenings  of 
a  rupture  with  England,  I  should  not  despair  of  some  sort 
of  settlement  with  the  latter,  notwithstanding  the  good 
understanding  between  our  government  and  the  French. 
I  am  told  that  the  commercial  speculations  which  were 
adventured  during  the  short  interval  that  followed  the 
proclamation,  will  generally  terminate  most  ruinously,  and 
that  before  the  next  spring  a  scene  of  great  distress  will  be 
exhibited  among  the  merchants. — If  the  administration 
had  not  been  supplied  from  this  temporary  source  with 
revenue,  the  public  coffers  must  have  been  as  empty  as 
the  private.  But  I  suppose  this  resort,  so  unfortunate  to 
the  country,  has  furnished  them  with  an  immediate  sup 
port.  How  long  it  may  last  is  another  question.  In  New 
York  you  are  preparing,  I  suppose,  for  the  next  election, 
with  some  prospect  of  federal  success.  In  Pennsylvania 
we  have  at  last,  I  trust,  reached  the  nadir  of  factious 
degradation.  For  two  years  to  come  the  great  question,. 

57 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

about  which  the  passions  of  the  good  people  of  this  State 
are  to  be  beat  up,  is  whether  a  fool  or  a  rascal  is  the  fittest 
governor.  Govr  Snyder,  the  actual  incumbent,  tho' 
hardly  warm  in  his  place,  has  already  shown  such  utter 
incapacity  that  his  partizans  are  ashamed  of  him,  and  Dr. 
Leib  is  making  violent  efforts  to  pull  him  down,  no  doubt 
with  a  design  of  succeeding  him.  This  controversy  is  of 
too  much  importance  to  permit  such  minor  considerations 
as  canals  turnpikes  and  internal  improvements  to  disturb 
its  discussions,  and  they  will  have  little  chance  of  legisla 
tive  attention  till  that  is  settled.  Next  Tuesday  will  deter 
mine  which  way  the  popular  scales  preponderate.  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  the  odds  heavy  against  the  reigning 
executive.  Col.  Duane  with  the  influence  of  the  Aurora 
declares,  toto  coslo,  for  his  friend  Leib — and  he  is  a  host 
irresistible.  In  our  part  of  the  State  there  is  no  question 
of  Leib's  triumph.  To  the  westward  probably  Snyder  is 
not  yet  so  unpopular.  From  the  excessive  agitation  of 
parties  among  us,  I  am  willing  to  anticipate  a  reformation 
at  no  very  remote  period,  for  the  people,  tho'  instigated  to 
intemperate  actions  by  the  unlicensed  provocations  of 
incendiary  presses,  which  are  on  all  sides  equally  scan 
dalous,  are  in  the  main  certainly  disposed  to  quiet  and 
propriety.  In  New  York  you  are  a  different  community — 
more  respectable — less  influenced  by  newspapers — better 
governed — and  in  all  respects  more  enviably  circum 
stanced.  Your  partizans  are  entitled  to  lead  from  their 
talents,  whatever  may  be  their  principles  or  conduct. 
Your  laws  are  administered  justly — your  internal  improve 
ments  are  never  neglected  whoever  rules.  The  ablest  are 
the  first  men  of  all  your  parties.  Whereas  we  are  so  deep 
in  the  slough  of  faction  that  the  best  men  of  any  party  are 
never  the  most  prominent.  .  .  ." 

58 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  PHILADELPHIA  27  March  1810. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, —  .  .  .  We  had  a  grand  imperial  fete 
last  night  in  our  neighbourhood,  which  had  like  to  have 
been  turned  into  a  republican  auto-da-fe — M.  &  Mde  de 
Daschkoff,  to  do  honor  to  the  anniversary  of  their  master's 
coronation,  invited  one  third  of  Philadelphia  to  a  ball,  and 
to  give  the  greater  eclat,  the  front  of  the  house  was  illumi 
nated  and  an  emblematic  transparency  exhibited  from  one 
of  the  windows,  on  which  among  other  things,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  was  a  crown  ;  a  crowd  of  vagabond  boys 
were  collected  about  the  door  the  whole  evening  but  the 
constables  who  mounted  guard — our  gens  d'armes — easily 
kept  them  in  order.  Just  however  as  the  Company  were 
descending  to  supper,  word  was  brought  that  a  mob  of 
more  magnitude,  with  a  naval  officer  at  their  head,  in  full 
uniform  and  armed  cap-a-pie,  were  making  regular  ad 
vances  and  demanded  that  the  crown  should  be  pulled 
down — a  bas  la  couronne.  Mr.  Alleyne  Smith,  of  Russian 
memory,  and  several  others  went  out  and  endeavoured  to 
explain  to  the  gentlemen  in  the  mud  that  the  transparency 
was  intended  to  do  them  honor — that  one  ship  was  sailing 
into  Petersburg,  another  into  Archangel  and  so  on — but 
all  in  vain — the  crown  must  come  down — and  it  was  not 
true  that  the  ship  was  going  into  port,  for  her  sails  were 
aback — a  mistake  it  seems,  the  painter  very  innocently 
ignorant  of  setting  sails,  had  made  in  the  drawing.  In 
the  mean  while  the  Ladies  were  seated  to  a  very  good 
supper,  the  door  was  kept  fast,  and  we  did  as  well  as  it 
was  possible  in  a  besieged  place,  with  plenty  of  provisions. 
The  result  of  the  parley  was  that  finding  the  beleaguerers 
inexorable  the  odious  diadem  should  be  removed.  Accord 
ingly  Mr.  Daschkoff  himself  with  four  others  clambered 
up  into  the  window  and  were  surrendering  as  fast  as  they 

59 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

could,  when  the  officer,  who  to  the  disgrace  of  the  country 
proves  to  be  a  son  of  Gen.  Hand  of  Lancaster  and  a  Doctor 
in  the  navy — fired  two  pistols  in  quick  succession,  the  ball 
from  one  of  which  passed  thro1  the  window  where  there 
were  five  persons,  by  great  good  fortune  without  doing 
any  personal  harm.  The  ball  was  found  and  handed 
about  the  rooms  afterwards,  among  the  rest  I  had  it  in  my 
hands.  The  mob  shouted  victory  and  marched  off.  This 
was,  I  think  a  scene  at  the  same  time  the  most  disgraceful 
&  ridiculous  that  ever  occurred  in  this  peaceable  town. 
Our  police  is  so  extremely  bad,  that  I  have  no  doubt  if 
the  Mayor  of  the  City  had  been  acquainted  with  the  affair 
he  would  have  been  the  principal  rioter.  ..." 

Early  in  the  year  1807,  John  Binns  had  come  to 
Philadelphia  and  established  a  new  Republican 
paper,  the  Democratic  Press,  which  was  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  Pennsylvania  politics 
for  many  years.  Binns  was  soon  engaged  in 
bitter  conflict  with  Duane  and  the  Aurora,  and  for 
some  years  after  1808  was  undoubtedly  the  lead 
ing  factor  in  the  Republican  politics  of  the  State, 
wresting  from  Duane  the  position  of  leader  which 
he  had  formerly  held.  It  has  already  been  seen 
that  at  about  this  time  Mr.  Ingersoll  published 
works  which  led  him  into  prominence  and  which 
show  that  upon  the  most  vital  questions  of  the 
day  he  then  held  the  views  maintained  by  the 
Republican  party.  He  was  at  the  time  of  the 
publication  of  "  Rights  and  Wrongs"  only  twenty- 
six  years  of  age,  so  that  his  early  maturity  found 

60 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

him  very  far  away  from  the  opinions  which  he  had 
been  taught,  and  about  ready  to  act  in  all  things 
with  the  party  to  which  he  adhered  all  the  rest  of 
his  life.  It  is  likely  that  he  soon  had  political 
aspirations,  for  a  man  of  his  temperament  taking 
the  interest  in  public  affairs  shown  by  his  writings 
can  hardly  have  been  free  from  them.  But  serious 
difficulties  stood  in  his  way.  With  Duane  and 
the  Aurora  he  must  have  been  entirely  hostile, 
and  with  Binns  he  had  had  a  serious  falling  out 
through  the  "  Would-have-been-a-tory"  tale.  I 
judge  that,  until  the  obstacle  growing  out  of  this 
was  removed,  he  could  not  possibly  have  suc 
ceeded  in  politics.  But  the  opinions  advocated  in 
"  Rights  and  Wrongs"  must  have  appealed  strongly 
to  Binns,  and  "  Inchiquin"  was  favorably  reviewed 
in  his  Democratic  Press  soon  after  its  anonymous 
publication,  and  early  in  March  that  paper  ap 
peared  to  be  aware,13  in  advance  of  general  knowl 
edge  of  the  fact,  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  in  reality 
Inchiquin.  I  suppose  that  these  writings  had 
soon  convinced  Binns  that  he  had  made  much  out 
of  nothing  in  the  tory  tale. 

Moreover,  during  these  years  the  course  of 
public  events  was  such  that  all  minor  differences 
were  merged  among  men  united  in  opinion  on  the 
main  issue  of  the  day.  The  great  question  was 
how  to  meet  the  continual  and  increasing  outrages 
upon  American  commerce.  The  youth  of  the 
61 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Republican  party  grew  more  and  more  to  favor 
war  against  England,  and  this  view  was  heartily 
supported  by  Mr.  Ingersoll.  As  early  as  1807,  at 
the  time  of  the  attack  upon  the  Chesapeake,  he 
had  favored  war,  and  thought  the  country  could 
be  united  upon  it;  and,  though  he  supported  the 
restrictive  measures  of  the  following  years,  he  was 
apparently  always  of  the  opinion  that  war  alone 
could  settle  the  difficulty.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  years  the  youth  of  the  Republicans  grew  to 
more  power  in  the  party's  councils,  and  the  War- 
Hawks  soon  came  to  control  its  destinies.  The 
eager  spirits  and  strong  wills  of  Clay,  Cheves, 
Grundy,  Lowndes,  Calhoun,  and  the  rest  were  not 
to  be  controlled,  and  in  this  band  of  hot-headed 
youth,  who  boldly  plunged  an  infant  and  a  not 
united  country  into  war  with  one  of  the  two  giant 
contestants  of  the  day,  was  undoubtedly  to  be 
found  Mr.  Ingersoll.  Their  action  was  audacious, 
and  maybe  foolhardy,  but  the  provocation  had 
been  tremendous,  and  the  results  of  the  war 
justified  their  audacity. 

I  presume  that  Mr.  Ingersoll's  writings  and  his 
advocacy  of  the  war  led  to  a  reconciliation  with 
Bmns,  and  it  was  no  doubt  with  his  approval  that 
he  was  nominated  for  the  Assembly  in  1811  on 
the  Republican  ticket.  Though  the  State  gener 
ally  went  Republican,  he  was  defeated  with  the 
rest  of  the  ticket  in  the  city  and  county  of  Phila- 

62 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

delphia,  owing  to  the  factional  troubles  between 
Binns  and  Duane.  In  March  of  the  next  year  he 
was  appointed  by  Governor  Snyder  one  of  the 
three  Commissioners  of  Insolvents;  but  the  law- 
creating  the  office  was  repealed,  except  as  to 
pending  cases,  the  same  year,  and  was  soon  held 
to  be  unconstitutional.  He  had  been  removed  by 
Snyder  from  the  clerkship  of  the  Orphans'  Court 
early  in  1809,  and  John  L.  Leib  appointed  in  his 
place.1-* 

It  has  been  asserted  by  some  writers  that  Mr. 
Madison  was  forced  by  Clay  and  others  to  declare 
for  war  against  England  as  a  condition  precedent 
to  his  renomination ;  and  although  the  charge  in 
this  breadth  lacks  evidence  to  sustain  it,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  his  own  peaceable  nature 
would  have  been  much  slower  in  reaching  that 
determination  but  for  the  influence  of  the  strong 
wills  and  opinions  of  Clay  and  other  hot-headed 
young  War-Hawks.  Binns  writes  that  in  the 
spring  of  1812  he  visited  Washington  with  the 
view  of  ascertaining  the  plans  of  the  administra 
tion  upon  this  subject,  and  in  May  it  was  deter 
mined  in  Philadelphia  to  refute  the  current  stories 
that  there  was  no  real  support  for  vigorous  meas 
ures  among  the  citizens  of  the  First  Congres 
sional  District  of  Pennsylvania.  Accordingly,  on 
May  20  a  large  and  enthusiastic  meeting  was  held 
in  the  State- House  yard,  at  which  strong  reso- 
63 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

lutions  in  favor  of  "  a  prompt  and  vigorous  war" 
were  passed.  At  this  meeting  the  Democratic 
papers  said  that  twelve  thousand  persons  were 
present;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  United 
States  Gazette  of  the  next  day  said, — 

"Yesterday  afternoon  a  motley  multitude  assembled  in 
the  State  House  Yard,  to  the  number  of  about  two  thou 
sand,  including  boys  and  bystanders,  &c.  .  .  .  We  have 
been  asked  who  is  the  author  of  the  address  read  with 
such  true  democratick  emphasis  from  the  scaffold  yester 
day.  As  yet  we  have  not  heard.  Judging,  however, 
from  internal  evidence,  we  should  say  that  it  was  written 
by  a  little  gentleman,  whom  his  present  friend  Binns 
most  malignantly  charged  a  year  or  two  ago  with  having 
declared  that  '  if  he  had  been  of  age  during  the  revolu 
tion,  he  would  have  been  a  Tory.'  ' 

This  address,  of  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  the 
author,  was  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
and  contained  probably  the  boldest  and  most  out 
spoken  words  in  favor  of  war  yet  uttered  by  any 
body  of  importance.  Though  it  seems  to-day 
stilted  and  overdrawn  in  style,  it  plainly  found  a 
strong  response  in  the  fiery  state  of  public  feeling 
then  prevalent,  was  reprinted  in  the  National 
Intelligencer,  and,  according  to  Richard  Rush,  at 
tracted  a  great  deal  of  notice  among  prominent 
people  at  Washington.  In  less  than  two  weeks 
after  the  meeting,  Mr.  Madison  sent  to  Congress 
his  message  of  June  I,  recommending  war,  which 

64 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

was  formally  declared  on  June  18;  and  early  the 
next  year  William  Jones,  who  had  been  the  chair 
man  of  the  meeting,  was  called  to  the  cabinet  as 
Secretary  of  the  Navy.  In  the  latter  part  of  June 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  in  Washington,  and  wrote  the 
following  letter  to  Mr.  Dallas  : 

"WASHINGTON  23 June,  1812. 

"  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  always  experienced  so  much  good 
ness  at  your  hands  that  I  must  redeem  my  promise  of 
writing  a  letter  from  the  metropolitan  wilderness,  tho'  it 
be  merely  to  assure  you  I  have  nothing  to  say,  The  papers 
inform  Washington  of  what  is  passing  within  its  district, 
and  of  course  therefore  I  cannot  communicate  what  the 
papers  have  not  anticipated.  There  is  to  be  sure  gener 
ally  some  political,  as  well  as  tea-table  small  talk,  which 
flourishes  here  as  elsewhere,  but  I  have  not  had  either 
time  or  opportunity  to  gather  much  of  even  this.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  Foster*  persisted  till  the  very  day  of  judg 
ment,  under  the  information  of  some  gentlemen  as  much 
deceived  as  he  was  himself,  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of  war, 
and  that  he  has  now  upon  him  the  distressing  con 
sciousness  of  having  misinformed  his  government  as  he 
was  misinformed  himself.  It  is  said  that  Gen.  Smith  & 
Mr.  Giles.f  with  no  very  great  cordiality  for  cooperating 
with  the  administration,  could  not  resist  original  impres 
sions,  when  brought  to  a  positive  test,  and  in  spite  of 

*  Augustus  John  Foster,  minister  from  England. 

f  General  Samuel  Smith,  United  States  Senator  from 
Maryland,  and  William  B.  Giles,  United  States  Senator 
from  Virginia,  both  voted  for  the  war. 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

personal  feelings,  could  not  find  freedom,  as  we  say  in 
Philadelphia,  to  vote  for  England  against  America.  It  is 
said  that  Mr.  Pope  *  has  not  coincided,  but  utterly  contra 
dicted,  the  wishes  of  Kentucky — that  Dr.  Mitchill.f  by 
voting,  as  he  thought,  with  N.  York,  perpetrated  a  most 
dreadful  outrage  on  his  own  opinion — that  Gen.  Worthing- 
ton,|  and  some  other  negatives  federal  as  well  as  repub 
lican,  not  excepting  even  Mr.  Lloyd  of  Massachusetts  or 
Mr.  Goldsborough  of  Maryland,  have  declared  that  as  the 
die  is  now  cast,  we  must  all  hands  play  for  our  country — 
that  in  short  it  begins  to  be  very  disreputable  to  be  obsti 
nately  submissive,  and  that  the  majority  have  gained 
ground,  confidence  and  self-satisfaction  every  day  since" 
the  1 8th  as  the  minority  have  lost  those  enjoyments.  The 
last  levee,  I  am  told,  was  like  an  evening  after  a  great 
victory.  Such  felicitations,  shaking  of  hands,  and  re 
joicings  as  were  never  exhibited  here  before — and  not 
without  cause,  as  there  was  some  reason  to  apprehend  that 
patriotism  would  be  made  to  fall  down  before  prejudices — 
and  both  the  result  and  the  principles  of  its  decision  were 
highly,  equally  gratifying.  Such  men  as  several  who  were 
counted  on  for  disaffection,  some  of  them  with  strong  pro 
pensities  to  embroilment,  could  not  stand  the  impulses 
propelling  them  over  the  shoals  of  faction  and  after  floun 
dering  there  rather  long  indeed,  ultimately  floated  in 


*  Senator  John  Pope,  of  Kentucky,  voted  against  the 
war. 

f  Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  Representative  from  New  York, 
voted  for  the  war. 

{  Senator  Thomas  Worthington,  of  Ohio,  voted  against 
the  war. 

66 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

smooth  and  customary  channels.  We  have  now  an  ac 
knowledged  enemy.  It  is  necessary  only  that  we  be 
friends  to  ourselves  to  accomplish  all  we  can  desire.  As 
I  shall  not  set  off  en  my  return  till  Thursday  morning  the 
next  drawing  room  will  afford  me  an  occasion  better  than 
I  otherwise  can  compass  of  ascertaining  the  common 
pulse.  When  I  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  in  Fourth 
St.  I  may  perhaps  be  better  freighted  with  news.  Till  then 
and  at  all  times  believe  me  your  sincere  and  respectfull 
humble  servant. 

"  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  sub  judice." 

During  this  same  spring  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  been 
writing  a  series  of  papers  for  the  Democratic  Press, 
urging  war  in  the  strongest  terms,  and  denouncing 
the  English  and  the  opposition  in  New  England. 
On  July  4  he  delivered  an  oration  to  Democratic 
citizens  at  "  Mr.  Harvey's,  Spring  Garden,"  and  in 
the  autumn  of  the  same  year  was  nominated  to 
Congress  in  the  First  Congressional  District  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  elected  with  the  rest  of  the  Re 
publican  nominees.  His  correspondence  shows 
that  he  had  had  thoughts  of  standing  for  Congress 
for  over  a  year,  but  had  long  hesitated.  Nor  is 
this  to  be  wondered  at,  as  his  professional  income 
was  at  the  time  six  thousand  dollars. 

At  the  time  of  his  election  he  was  but  thirty 
years  of  age,  and  was  so  youthful  in  appearance 
that  the  door-keeper  of  Congress  at  first  declined 
to  admit  him,  thinking  it  impossible  that  so  young 
a  person  could  be  a  member. 
67 


CHAPTER    III. 

War  of  1812— War-Hawks— Early  Failures— Naval  Tri 
umphs — New  England  Opposition  denounced — Thir 
teenth  Congress — His  Course  in — Speeches — Answers 
Webster  on  Disunion — Collision  with  Mr.  Stockton — 
New  England  Federalism — Not  re-elected — His  Position 
in  Congress — Peace — United  States  District  Attorney — 
Letters  during  the  War. 

THE  war  of  1812  was  emphatically  the  war  of 
the  youth  of  America,  the  most  important  step 
which  had  yet  been  brought  about  by  the  genera 
tion  upon  whose  shoulders  was  rapidly  falling  the 
mantle  of  the  fathers  of  the  country.  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  often  spoke  of  it  as  the  "  second  edition  of 
American  Independence;"  and  even  the  Revolu 
tion  would  not  have  ranked  as  the  heroic  period 
of  our  existence  in  a  higher  degree  than  the  Second 
War,  but  for  the  violent  opposition  to  it  of  that 
section  of  our  country  which,  though  then  so  out 
of  tune  with  the  tendency  of  American  history,  has 
come  in  time  not  only  largely  to  guide  the  course 
of  public  affairs,  but  to  write  our  history  as  well. 
New  England's  bitter  and  factious  opposition, 
driven  to  the  very  verge  of  disunion,  and  the  fer 
tile  soil  where  sprung  up  the  theories  upon  which 
the  successive  advocates  of  secession  have  based 

68 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

their  claims,  probably  prevented  the  war  from 
being  a  great  triumph,  and  has  certainly  obscured 
its  necessity  and  its  daring  boldness.  The  series 
of  oppressions  and  outrages  which  led  up  to  it  was 
indeed  such  as  is  to-day  marvellous  to  think  of. 

New  admiralty  rules,  invented  to  render  neu 
tral  (i.e.,  American)  commerce  impossible ;  decrees 
in  council  which  recolonized  us ;  and  the  right  of 
search,  exercised  at  the  will  of  insolent  sea-captains 
against  even  fishing-smacks  and  coasting-vessels 
and  an  American  vessel  of  war,  constitute  a  chap 
ter  of  history  which  may  well  make  one  laugh  at 
such  an  expression  as  international  law.  But 
when  we  add  to  all  this  the  impressment  of 
Americans,  the  cup  of  our  wrongs  does  indeed 
flow  over.  Of  course,  in  theory,  impressment  was 
based  upon  a  ground  which  was  then  fairly  open 
to  argument, — the  denial  of  the  right  of  expatria 
tion;  but  it  was  necessarily  exercised  by  roving 
sea-captains,  bred  to  the  methods  of  the  press- 
gang  and  reeking  with  all  the  then  insolence  of 
the  British  quarter-deck,  who  often  sadly  needed 
men  for  their  crews,  and  who  had  no  possible 
means  of  ascertaining  the  essential  fact  of  nativity. 
It  is  well  known,  and  was  even  then  admitted,  that 
born  Americans  had  been  wrongfully  seized  in  this 
way. 

For  a  new,  peaceful,  and  only  half-united 
country  to  wage  war,  even  for  such  wrongs  as 
69 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

these,  against  the  giant  power  of  the  England  of 
1812  was  indeed  a  bold  step.  But,  despite  the 
hesitation,  the  warnings,  and  the  opposition  of 
the  older  generation,  the  younger  War-Hawks  at 
length  succeeded  in  carrying  their  measure.  They 
had  no  hesitations,  and  looked  upon  an  easy  vic 
tory  over  England  as  a  foregone  conclusion.  They 
seem,  in  the  boiling  enthusiasm  of  youth  and 
under  the  sting  of  a  long  series  of  wrongs,  to 
have  entirely  forgotten  the  stubborn  valor  and  the 
fighting  qualities  of  their  opponents,  and  when 
defeats  came,  the  rude  brushing  away  of  dreams 
of  easy  triumph  was  indeed  a  painful  experience, 
but  abated  nothing  of  their  strenuous  efforts,  nor 
of  their  confidence  in  final  success.  In  all  this  hot 
headed  confidence  of  youth  Mr.  Ingersoll  shared 
fully,  and  maybe  more  than  most  of  his  associates. 
He  tells  us  how,  at  a  time  when  he  was  confident 
that  Hull  was  marching  in  triumph  from  Maiden  to 
Queenston,  he  heard  doubts  and  warnings  with 
incredulous  annoyance  from  the  lips  of  a  friend 
and  old  Revolutionary  soldier.  This  officer,  Gen 
eral  Craig,  had  experienced  the  force  of  English 
armies  and  the  dangers  and  chances  of  military 
movements,  and  shook  his  head  at  his  young 
friend's  confidence,  warning  him  not  to  be  too 
sanguine.  It  cannot  have  been  long  after  this  that 
the  full  story  of  Hull's  disgraceful  failure  became 
known,  and  the  blow  must  have  been  a  bitter  one 

70 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  those  who,  like  Mr.  Ingersoll,  had  allowed  their 
sanguine  hopes  to  soar  too  high. 

But  if  the  supporters  of  the  war  were  often  con 
fronted  by  defeats  and  even  disgraceful  disasters 
on  land,  instead  of  the  easy  tide  of  success  they 
had  so  confidently  hoped  for,  far  different  was  the 
issue  of  events  upon  the  sea,  the  very  element 
upon  which  their  enemy  had  annihilated  all  other 
competitors.  There,  triumph  succeeded  triumph 
with  dazzling  brilliancy.  In  dogged  resistance 
against  vast  odds,  in  dash,  in  fertility  of  expedi 
ents  to  overcome  difficulties,  in  gunnery,  in  sea 
manship,  in  everything  that  goes  to  give  success 
at  sea,  the  young  nation,  but  recently  a  byword  of 
scorn  to  its  opponent,  was  easily  superior,  and 
humbled  indeed  the  pride  of  its  arrogant  enemy. 
Vessel  after  vessel  lost,  and  flag  after  flag  struck 
upon  the  element  upon  which  they  hardly  knew 
how  to  strike  a  flag,  was  the  lesson  borne  home  to 
the  British  ;  and  a  bitter  lesson  it  was,  though  very 
necessary,  in  order  to  teach  a  degree  of  respect  for 
their  young  and  thriving  progeny.  The  moral 
effect  of  these  triumphs  throughout  the  world 
cannot  be  measured,  and  in  this  country  they 
were  of  course  received  with  unbounded  exulta 
tion.  Nothing  has  come  to  my  hands  to  show 
how  Mr.  Ingersoll  received  them,  but  it  is  likely 
that  he  was  more  prepared  for  maritime  successes 
than  most  of  his  countrymen.  He  tells  I5  in  his 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  Second  War"  a  story  he  had  heard  of  Nelson's 
admiration  and  almost  apprehension  of  the  way 
American  vessels  were  handled,  and  Inchiquin 
had  fully  appreciated  the  high  character  of  our 
navy,  and  written  as  follows  of  it : 

"Among  so  small  a  number  of  individuals  as  compose 
the  officers  of  this  little  navy,  never  did  nor  does  there 
exist  a  more  glorious  spirit  of  chivalric  valor  and  enter 
prise,  superior  nautical  skill  and  proficiency,  discipline, 
subordination  and  concert  in  time  of  service,  more  gentle 
manlike  deportment,  urbanity  and  unexceptionable  con 
duct  in  society.  There  is  no  body  of  men  so  well  deserving 
to  be  entitled  the  flower  of  the  country." 

It  is  also  worthy  of  mention  that  the  corre 
spondence  between  Mr.  Ingersoll  and  Richard 
Rush  shows  that  at  the  very  outbreak  of  the  war 
they  had  selected  Decatur  as  a  man  sure  to  distin 
guish  himself.  Mr.  Ingersoll,  too,  had  early  se 
lected  as  his  special  favorite  in  the  army — and,  I 
think,  had  helped  to  appoint — General  Jacob 
Brown,  who  showed  himself  later  one  of  our 
most  determined  and  successful  officers. 

Some  of  the  correspondence  between  Mr.  Inger 
soll  and  Mr.  Rush  during  the  war  has  been  pre 
served,  and  it  presents  an  interesting  view  of  the 
intense  feeling  of  the  time,  and  shows  that  these  two 
young  men  had  in  them  in  a  high  degree  that  burn 
ing  ardor  which  wins  battles  and  does  so  many  great 
deeds.  It  was  Mr.  Rush  who,  after  some  sleepless 

72 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

nights,  he  tells  us,  conceived  and  proposed  the  idea 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  being  called  into  the  cabinet ;  and 
upon  the  failure  of  Hull  he  bitterly  regrets  that  at 
least  some  one  small  band  of  the  Americans  had 
not  refused  to  surrender,  and  had  not  thrown  them 
selves  upon  the  enemy  and  inspired  their  country 
men  to  high  actions,  instead  of  all  surrendering 
without  a  blow. 

Nor  was  Mr.  Ingersoll  one  whit  behind  him,  but 
was  laboring  in  every  way  open  to  him  to  push 
on  the  fortunes  of  the  war.  Not  only  did  he  early 
put  all  the  small  estate  he  owned  into  the  Federal 
loan  which  was  issued,  but  the  columns  of  the 
Democratic  Press l6  contained  from  his  pen  numer 
ous  "  Yankee  philippics,"  as  Mr.  Rush  termed 
them,  in  which  the  "  miscreants"  who  opposed  the 
war  were  roundly  denounced,  and  were  dared  to 
separate  from  the  Union ;  and  the  English,  too, 
were  often  handled  without  gloves.  The  timid 
and  halting  measures  of  the  administration,  par 
ticularly  before  war  was  declared,  were  gall  and 
wormwood  to  him,  and  he  protested  and  declaimed 
against  them  in  a  series  of  letters  which  consider 
ably  ruffled  the  more  mild  nature  of  Mr.  Rush. 

During  the  sessions  of  Congress,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
boarded  at  O'Neale's,  and  was  punctually  on  hand 
to  take  his  seat  at  the  opening  of  the  special 
session  on  May  24,  1813.  Among  the  new  mem 
bers  who  came  with  him  were  Daniel  Webster 

73 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  John  Forsyth.  Clay,  Calhoun,  Grundy,  and 
Cheves  were  probably  the  recognized  leaders  on 
the  administration  side,  but  Mr.  Ingersoll  soon 
achieved  for  himself  also  a  like  rank.  Every  meas 
ure  for  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  had 
his  unwavering  support, — the  bills  to  encourage 
enlistments,  including  that  for  the  enlistment  of 
minors  over  eighteen  ;  the  later  measure  for  militia 
drafts ;  the  efficient  measures  for  raising  revenue 
by  taxation ;  the  bill  for  the  charter  of  a  bank, — 
all  found  in  him  an  earnest  advocate.  Nor  was 
he  by  any  means  contented  with  the  methods 
adopted,  but  was  constantly  a  supporter,  during 
the  formation  of  bills  in  committee,  of  far  more 
efficient  plans  than  those  which  the  bulk  of  the 
party  sustained ;  and  his  voice  rang  out,  more 
over,  on  every  occasion  in  earnest  support  of  the 
justice  and  propriety  of  the  war,  and  in  denuncia 
tion  of  certain  features  of  its  conduct  by  the  Eng 
lish,  and  of  the  bitter  and  unpatriotic  opposition 
of  New  England.  Though  one  of  the  youngest 
members,  he  was  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com 
mittee  and  a  member  of  that  upon  Foreign  Rela 
tions,  and  was  earnest  in  attending  to  his  duties. 
When  worn  out  by  the  contests  of  a  long  session, 
and  oppressed  with  the  heat  and  other  discomforts 
of  Washington,  he  would  write  home  that  he  was 
"  too  patriotic  to  be  homesick,  but  beginning  to  be 
very  impatient  to  be  at  home." 

74 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

His  first  set  speech  was  delivered  on  June  29, 
and  very  markedly  showed  his  independence.  The 
House  was  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  upon  a 
revenue  bill,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll,  in  a  speech  sus 
taining  resolutions  of  his  for  a  succession  and  in 
come  tax,  referred  to  the  recent  acceptance  of  the 
Russian  offer  of  mediation,  and  spoke  of  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  as  "  now  ...  on  his  way  to  the  Arctic 
Circle  in  pursuit  of  peace,  intoxicated,  I  am  afraid, 
with  vain  hopes  of  at  least  a  very  doubtful  and 
dangerous  success,"  and  then  went  on  to  express 
himself  as  follows  : I7 

"  Most  heartily,  for  my  part,  do  I  wish  the  Russian  mis 
sion  a  speedy  accomplishment  of  all  its  objects  !  But, 
though  I  have  avoided  inflaming  this  debate  with  a  re 
capitulation  of  the  causes  of  this  just  war,  permit  me  to 
avail  myself  of  this  occasion  to  throw  in  very  briefly  my 
ideas  of  its  legitimate  progress  and  proper  termination. 
If  I  differ  in  opinion  with  any  of  my  friends,  as  it  is  an 
honest  difference,  there  can  be  no  impropriety  in  my  ex 
hibiting  the  grounds  of  the  sentiments  I  entertain.  I  am 
one  of  the  last  individuals  in  this  House  who  would  wan 
tonly  utter  a  disrespectful  or  ungracious  sentiment  con 
cerning  any  of  the  measures  of  that  Administration,  to 
which  I  am  attached,  or  toward  that  excellent  person  in 
particular,  who,  so  much  to  the  interest  and  satisfaction 
of  his  country,  fills  the  Executive  Magistracy  of  these 
United  States  ;  .  .  .  But,  sir,  I  espoused  this  just  and  in 
evitable  war,  not  because  it  was  a  measure  of  the  present 
Administration — and  I  am  wedded  to  its  fortunes — not 
merely  because  the  present  Administration  is  intrusted 
75 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

with  its  prosecution.  My  affiance  is  founded  on  higher 
and  deeper,  I  will  add,  nobler  principles — principles  which 
will  outlive  this  and  every  other  Administration.  I  sup 
port,  and  will  continue  to  support,  this  war,  so  long  as  I 
shall  remain  in  the  conscientious  belief,  together  with  the 
majority  of  the  American  people,  that  the  hostilities  we 
ought  to  be  waging  are  indispensable  to  the  welfare,  the 
character,  the  union,  the  existence  of  the  nation. 

"Sir,  having  said  thus  much,  let  me  add,  with  a  full 
foresight  of  the  responsibility  I  incur — having  well  con 
sidered  what  I  am  about  to  say — and  prompted  in  its 
public  declaration  by  a  powerful  sense  of  public  duty,  I 
proceed  to  add,  that  I  am  afraid  this  war  has  been  mortified 
with  too  pacific  an  aspect ;  I  fear  its  vigor  has  been  cramped 
for  the  purpose  of  pampering  a  premature  peace.  I  am 
as  warm  a  friend  to  peace  as  any  man,  and  would  subscribe 
to  it  on  as  moderate  terms  ;  but  after  war  has  been  de 
clared,  in  my  humble  apprehension,  peace-seeking  is  not 
the  avenue  to  peace,  is  not  pacific  policy.  If  this  war 
had  been  waged  with  a  boldness,  such  as  has  marked  our 
incessant  endeavors  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  which  have  followed 
each  other  ever  since  war  was  declared,  in  an  increasing 
ratio  of  iteration  and  intensity,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the 
enemy,  long  before  now,  would  have  been  panting  for 
peace,  pent  up  within  the  walls  of  Quebec,  if  indeed  even 
the  last  resort  of  his  annoyance,  the  ultima  thule  of  his 
foothold  on  the  North  American  continent  had  not  been  in 
your  safekeeping,  a  pledge,  a  mortgage,  for  a  permanent 
pacification." 

This  was  certainly  a  very  outspoken  criticism 
of  the  administration,  and  is  hardly  likely  to  have 
been  pleasing  to  the  authorities;  but  it  does  not 

76 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

seem  to  have  injured  its  author,  and  it  is  hardly 
open  to  question  that  he  was  quite  right.  Nor  can 
it  be  doubted  that  the  presence  of  so  outspoken  a 
friend  was  very  useful  as  a  restraint  upon  the 
cabinet  from  giving  too  free  scope  to  its  peaceful 
plans  and  longings. 

In  the  summer  of  1813,  Mr.  Ingersoll  published 
a  very  long  letter  to  his  constituents  on  the  foreign 
relations  of  the  United  States  and  the  origin  of  the 
war,  which  was  printed  at  large  in  the  National  In 
telligencer  of  July  31  and  attracted  wide  attention. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  on  January  14,  1814, 
he  answered  impromptu  the  first  set  speech  of 
Daniel  Webster,  and  in  at  least  one  other  instance 
he  had  occasion  to  answer  the  same  great  oppo 
nent.  On  December  9,  1814,  upon  the  discussion 
of  the  bill  for  militia  drafts,  Mr.  Webster  had 
been  indulging  himself  in  some  of  those  threats  of 
disunion  which  constituted  no  small  part  of  the 
argument  of  the  New  England  opposition,  and 
Mr.  Ingersoll  answered  him18  with  spirit,  directing 
his  attention  at  the  same  time  to  certain  other 
arguments  of  members  from  New  England. 

"They  denounce  that  Administration,"  he  said,  "as 
the  most  imbecile,  indigent,  and  despicable  in  the  world  ; 
and  yet,  with  all  the  wealth,  and  all  the  talents,  they  have 
in  vain  withheld  their  wealth,  in  vain  exercised  their 
talents  to  thrust  this  miserable  obstacle  from  their  course. 
They  possess,  exclusively,  all  the  physical  resources,  and 

77 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

all  the  patriotic  attachments  of  the  soil  of  the  country — the 
bone,  marrow,  sinews,  and  vitals  of  the  State — and  they 
come  here  to  reproach  Administration  for  not  having 
prevented  or  defeated  a  sudden  inroad  upon  this  Capital, 
while  a  portion  of  their  own  territory  has  been,  for  six 
months,  in  the  undisputed  occupation  of  the  enemy — sub 
dued  without  resistance,  and  held  without  an  effort  to 
regain  it.  We  can  all  recollect,  Mr.  Chairman,  how  the 
gentleman  from  New  Hampshire,  (Mr.  Webster,)  in  par 
ticular,  demonstrated  to  us,  about  this  time  last  year,  that 
our  war  was  unpopular  and  unjust ;  how  he  entertained  us 
with  distinctions  between  war  offensive  and  war  defensive  ; 
between  the  mercenary  spirit  of  extra-territorial  conquest 
and  aggrandizement  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  generous 
ardor  of  repelling  invasion  on  the  other  ;  how  he  proved 
our  inability  to  conquer  Canada  without  the  cordial  co 
operation  of  New  England  ;  and  how  speedily  Canada 
would  be  overrun  and  subdued  if  his  immediate  fellow- 
citizens  could  be  enlisted  into  the  cause,  instead  of  the 
armies — and  yet,  now  that  the  war  has  become  defensive 
to  them  ;  now  that  it  has  pushed  itself  into  their  planta 
tions  ;  now  that  the  conqueror  rings  the  knell  of  a  curfew 
every  evening  over  their  own  firesides,  not  a  note  of 
preparation  or  resistance  do  we  hear  from  their  mountains 
or  their  seaboard,  nor  any  other  note  but  that  of  rejoicing 
in  the  happy  exchange  they  have  made  of  war  without 
trade  for  trade  without  war.  Nay,  sir,  they  are  more 
robust  than  ever  in  opposition  to  the  war,  now  that  nothing 
is  left  in  dispute  but  a  canton  of  their  own  soil ;  and  they 
venture  to  threaten  us  with  disunion  for  presuming  to  enact 
a  militia  law,  when  the  enemy  offers  us  a  peace  we  can 
accede  to  at  any  moment,  and  leave  that  section  which 
shakes  the  rod  of  dismemberment  over  our  heads  to  fight 

78 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

out  the  battle  with  Great  Britain.  Sir,  I  do  not  belong  to 
that  slaveholding  portion  of  these  States  to  which  such 
frequent  and  such  angry  allusions  are  made  from  another 
quarter,  and,  for  particular  reasons,  I  look  with  a  degree 
of  reverence  and  a  strong  regard  towards  the  East.  I 
listen,  too,  with  pleasure,  generally,  to  whatever  falls 
from  the  gentleman  from  New  Hampshire,  (Mr.  Webster,) 
because,  however  I  may  disapprove  the  doctrine,  it  is,  for 
the  most  part,  supported  by  argument,  as  to-day  it  was  by 
eloquence.  But  it  was,  if  I  may  so  express  it,  with  a  very 
painful  pleasure  that  I  attended  to  his  pathetic  threats  this 
morning. 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  a  dissolution  of  this  Confederacy  is  a 
national  misfortune,  upon  which  I  never  think  without 
great  pain.  The  political  school  in  which  I  have  made 
my  inconsiderable  acquisitions,  abhors  and  deprecates  so 
desperate  a  resort.  I  know  of  but  one  evil  more  to  be 
dreaded.  But  there  is  one,  and  of  that  one  I  inform  the 
gentleman  from  New  Hampshire.  It  is  the  deterring 
those  States  who  hold  a  legitimate  ascendency  in  the  Gov 
ernment  from  any  measure  whatever,  by  the  threat  of  a 
dismemberment  as  the  consequence  of  it.  Whenever  this 
is  the  case,  the  Union  is  virtually  dissolved.  The  sub 
stance  is  gone,  and  nothing  remains  but  the  shadow — a 
cold  and  melancholy  shade  of  authority — without  warmth, 
without  life — contemptible  to  our  enemies,  and  formidable 
only  to  ourselves.  Minorities  have  their  rights,  and  I 
should  be  one  of  the  last  to  infringe  upon  them.  But 
majorities  have  duties  too,  and  duties  to  be  performed  at 
every  hazard. 

' '  Sir,  we  have  been  but  too  long  threatened  with  disso 
lution,  but  too  often  deterred  from  proper  and  Constitu 
tional  purposes  by  such  apprehensions.  The  same  ground 

79 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

was  taken  in  the  same  quarter  against  the  embargo  laws. 
The  same  threats.  But  there  was  no  resistance  to  those 
very  severe  and  unpalatable  acts  ;  and  I  trust  there  will 
be  none  to  this  militia  bill.  I  do  not  believe  that  there 
will.  But  whether  there  will  or  not  shall  have  no  influence 
upon  me.  If  I  consider  the  thing  just,  I  shall  vote  for  it 
and  maintain  it,  leaving  results  to  themselves." 

But  the  speech  of  his  which  attracted  the  most 
notice  was  made  upon  the  Loan  bill  on  February 
14  and  15,  1814.  A  correspondent  of  the  Demo 
cratic  Press  ^  wrote  that  he  held  the  House  sus 
pended  in  mute  attention  for  three  hours,  and  es 
pecially  referred  to  a  power  which — we  shall  see 
later — was  characteristic  of  his  eloquence,  the 
energy  which  he  imparted  to  even  ordinary 
words.  The  speech  was  upon  the  causes  and 
justice  of  the  war,  and  was  full  of  evidence  of 
careful  study.  Instead  of  contenting  himself  with 
"  turning  up  the  mere  surface  of  our  commercial 
embarrassments, "and  beginning  with  the  Berlin  and 
Milan  decrees,  as  other  debaters  had  done,  he  went 
back  to  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  for  the  doctrine  that 
"  free  ships  make  free  goods,"  and  showed  how 
doggedly  the  English  had  for  years  resisted  the 
Spanish  claim  of  a  right  of  search.  All  this  his 
tory,  as  well  as  that  of  more  recent  times  and  of 
the  efforts  of  the  United  States  to  avoid  war,  was 
illustrated  with  a  mass  of  historical  references 
which  made  the  speech  valuable  but  rather  unfits 

So 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

it  for  reproduction  here.  Later  on  he  launched 
out  into  the  following20  torrent  of  invective  against 
the  English  for  their  employment  of  the  Indians 
as  allies : 

"But  is  there  no  additional  cause  for  our  hostilities? 
Has  nothing  been  superinduced  by  the  war  itself,  adding 
to  its  original  inducements  most  unparalleled  aggrava 
tion  ?  Mr.  Chairman,  yes,  an  atrocity  overlooked  by  our 
Government,  familiarized  to  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  but 
one,  nevertheless,  against  which  every  cottage  should  be 
hung  with  mementoes,  every  parlor  tapestried  with  re 
monstrances.  I  allude,  sir,  to  the  barbarian  subornation 
by  England  of  our  Indian  borderers,  whose  savage  thirst 
has  been  slaked  in  the  blood  of  our  women  and  children, 
under  the  direct  encouragement  of  English  agency.  I 
mean  to  take  some  notice  of  this  nefarious  inhumanity. 
The  Executive  Government  of  this  country,  which  is 
accused  of  so  much  unfounded  hostility  to  Great  Britain, 
has  omitted  in  my  humble  opinion  the  most  imposing  and 
overwhelming  complaints  with  which  a  nation  ever  was 
rebuked,  by  their  silence  on  this  subject.  But  I  shall  not 
follow  the  example  of  the  Government ;  and  shall  make 
no  apology  for  presenting  this  atrocity  in  its  true  colors. 
The  British  manifesto  of  the  9th  January,  1813,  which 
puts  forth  their  justification  in  this  war,  states  expressly 
that  Mr.  Foster  had  instructions  to  repudiate  the  foul  charge 
of  their  employment  of  our  Indians.  Did  he  do  so  ?  Never. 
I  am  aware  at  least  of  no  solemn  protestation  from  that 
Minister  against  this  imputation,  this  indelible,  deadly  blot 
on  the  annals  of  this  nation.  But  supposing  that  he  had, 
would  that  alter  the  fact  ?  Should  that  disprove  it  ?  There 
was  indeed  a  period  when  the  drawing-room  and  the 

6  Si 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

cabinet  were  hung  with  specious  but  most  insidious  trap 
pings  of  amity  ;  but  even  then  the  trans-Alleganean  wilder 
ness  was  rustling  with  the  preparation  of  the  savage, 
licking  his  chops  in  ambush,  and  hankering  for  the  prom 
ised  repast.  There  was  a  time  when  we  examined  the 
powder,  and  the  arms,  the  muskets,  and  weapons,  that 
fell  into  our  hands  at  the  battle  of  the  Wabash,  in  order 
to  ascertain  whether  the  ear-mark  of  England  was  upon 
them.  There  was  a  time  when,  if  such  signs  were  declared 
to  exist,  ten  thousand  voices  and  pens  and  prints  rose  up 
to  contradict  the  ungenerous  aspersion.  But  that  time  has 
passed  away.  The  Englishman  and  the  Indian,  like  the 
mastiff  and  the  wolf,  since  then  have  always  roamed 
abroad  together  ;  the  one  decorated  with  the  collar  and 
other  indications  of  refinement,  but  without  its  heart ;  the 
other  bounding  in  native  ruthlessness  ;  and  kept  each 
other' s  company  scouring  our  forests,  contending  for  their 
prey.  .  .  . 

"  What  an  outrage  then  this  is  !  and  what  proof  of  it ! 
From  the  official  papers  of  the  British  commanders,  ex 
cathedra,  indeed,  have  we  the  evidence  of  this  fell,  un 
manly,  and  unchristian  outrage — an  outrage  that  has  no 
equal.  I  solemnly  protest,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  my  incon 
siderable  knowledge  suggests  no  oblation  ever  laid  on  the 
altar  of  human  malignity  and  vindictiveness  to  be  com 
pared  with  this  subornation  of  our  Indians — by  the  English 
who  boast  of  their  superior  religion  and  charity,  who  have 
sent  out  more  missionaries  of  late  for  the  salvation  of 
distant  hemispheres  than  all  the  rest  of  the  world  put 
together — against  us  Americans,  their  descendants,  their 
flesh  and  blood — through  the  instrumentality  of  those  sav 
ages  whom  by  every  liberality  and  study  we  have  labored 
to  humanize  and  ameliorate,  and  whom  we  could  at  any 

82 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

moment  either  extirpate  or  expel  from  the  neighborhood 
of  our  frontiers.  It  is,  sir,  an  excess  of  wrong  which  abso 
lutely  flings  the  hurdle  and  guillotine  behind,  and  occupies 
the  most  conspicuous  place  in  the  representation  of  our 
most  unnatural  passions.  True  it  is,  I  am  aware  of  it, 
that  we  have  latterly  employed  some  of  these  monsters  in 
our  armies.  But  not  until  a  twelvemonth  and  more  for 
bearance  ;  not  until  after  we  were  taught  by  bitter  lessons 
that  English  officers  and  soldiers  were  to  be  opposed  only 
by  the  auxiliaries  of  their  own  choice  ;  not  till  we  had 
learned  that  to  carry  consternation  into  British  ranks,  it 
was  necessary  to  set  before  them  the  counterpart  of  their 
own  allies. 

"And  yet  this  is  a  war  without  a  cause  !  This  is  a  war 
so  wantonly  waged  on  our  part !  This  is  the  unnecessary, 
the  wicked  and  the  foolish  contest  we  keep  up  !  .  .  . 

"  But  this  wanton  and  disastrous  war  is  also  partial  in 
its  pressure.  What  an  objection  to  come  from  Massachu 
setts  to  Virginia  !  What  an  objection,  while  any  of  the 
patriots  of  the  Revolution  survive  !  I  mention  it  but  to 
say  that  if  Virginia  had  made  such  an  objection  to  Massa 
chusetts  in  1775,  we  should  not  now  have  been  an  inde 
pendent  nation.  It  is,  however,  unfounded  in  fact.  The 
pressure  is  felt  more  severely  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  North 
Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  than  in  any  section  whatever  of 
the  Eastern  States. ' ' 

On  another  occasion  he  denounced21  the  Brit 
ish  as 

"these  modern  Buccaneers,  who  have  carried  their 
calicoes  for  sale  throughout  the  world  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  plunging  the  bayonet  into  every  bosom  that 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

refused  to  cover  itself  with  the  calico — who  have  wrapped 
the  four  corners  of  the  earth  in  flames  for  a  monopoly  of 
manufactures.  We  could  not  dress  but  in  their  broad 
cloths.  We  could  not  eat  but  with  their  hardwares.  We 
could  not  sleep  but  in  their  blankets.  Not  a  hobnail  but 
was  English.  They  had  us  effectually  recolonized,  without 
bloodshed  or  expense.  But  this  did  not  content  them." 

Not  long  before  his  speech  on  the  Loan  bill  he 
had  had  a  very  severe  collision  with  Mr.  Stockton, 
of  New  Jersey.  This  gentleman  had  used  an 
expression  in  debate  very  much  like  rejoicing  that 
the  flag  had  been  struck,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  at 
once  protested  against  this  "  monstrous"  sentiment. 
A  few  days  afterwards  Mr.  Stockton  explained  that 
he  had  meant  that  the  administration  had  struck 
its  flag  and  abandoned  what  he  thought  untenable 
grounds  for  the  war,  and  he  then  proceeded  to 
make  a  violent  and  most  personal  attack  upon  Mr. 
Ingersoll.  He  is  said  to  have  been  several  times 
called  to  order  by  members  and  by  the  Chair. 
Mr.  Ingersoll  immediately, — to  quote  an  opinion  " 
of  the  day, — "  with  the  utmost  coolness  and  in  a 
style  of  correctness  not  to  be  surpassed,  gave  Mr. 
Stockton  such  a  rebuke  as  even  under  '  the  frost  of 
fifty  years'  may  teach  him  wisdom."  However  this 
may  be,  the  answer  was  dignified  and  entirely  de 
void  of  the  grossly  personal  features  of  Mr.  Stock 
ton's  diatribe.  What  must  have  added  to  the  pain 
of  this  episode  is  the  fact  of  former  friendship  and 

84 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

intimacy, — such,  at  least,  as  can  exist  between 
men  of  widely  different  ages.  Mr.  Stockton  was 
a  member  of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  of  which 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  chairman ;  so  that  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  they  had  had  collisions  before.  He 
was  one  of  those  perverse  Federalists  of  the  New 
England  stripe  who  looked  at  all  points  involved 
in  the  war  from  the  ultra-English  stand-point;  our 
maintenance  of  the  right  of  expatriation  was  to  him 
a  subject  of  ridicule,  and  presumably  he  would 
therefore  have  defended  impressment,  as  did  other 
leading  members  of  his  party.  During  the  dispute 
with  Mr.  Ingersoll,  the  latter  had  laid  down  as 
follows  the  general  principles  for  which  he  consid 
ered  the  war  to  be  waged  :  "  i.  A  regulation  of  the 
British  extension  by  construction  of  blockade.  2. 
A  limitation  of  their  inordinate  catalogue  of  con 
traband.  3.  No  search  for  men.  4.  A  qualified 
ascertained  and  moderate  search  for  things."  But, 
mild  as  these  claims  were,  Mr.  Stockton  ridiculed 
them,  and  told  Mr.  Ingersoll  that  he  would  "  never 
accomplish  one  solitary  article  in  the  list."  23 

The  presence  in  our  midst  of  this  band  of  able 
men  of  ultra-English  opinions  led  to  many  another 
collision  than  that  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  and  Mr.  Stock 
ton,  and  constitutes  one  of  the  curious  features  of 
the  times.  These  men,  mainly  from  New  England, 
and  then  easily  leading  public  opinion  in  that  sec 
tion,  were  as  much  at  variance  with  the  American 

85 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

views — views  now  well-nigh  universally  received — 
as  if  they  had  been  born  and  bred  in  the  court 
circles  of  old  England.  They  took  the  English 
view  upon  every  question,  and  in  their  virulent 
opposition  to  their  own  country  marched  up  to  the 
very  threshold  of  secession.  And  what  is  most 
curious  in  the  matter,  though  the  first  fifteen  years 
of  the  century  thus  saw  New  England  rabidly 
hostile  to  the  trend  of  American  development,  yet 
but  a  few  years  later  found  it  having  its  full  part  in 
that  same  continuous  growth  which  has  marked 
our  history.  New  England  writers,  who  should 
best  understand  the  origin  and  explanation  of  this 
change  of  the  controlling  public  sentiment  in  their 
section,  do  not  usually  try  to  explain  the  curious 
transformation,  but  pass  the  whole  matter  largely 
sub  silentio  from  mistaken  pride  of  locality  and  a 
desire  to  conceal  their  section's  maintenance  at 
that  time  of  views  which  have  grown  very  un 
fashionable  in  the  lapse  of  years.  Schouler  forms 
an  exception,  and  examines 24  the  subject  at  some 
length.  He  thinks  that  the  Federalist  leaders  con 
stituted,  as  in  the  British  provinces,  a  sort  of  ruling 
gentry,  powerful  in  social  influence  and  full  of 
pride  and  obstinacy.  This  quasi  aristocracy  had 
inherited  its  control  from  colonial  times,  and  was 
overthrown  and  deprived  of  its  power  owing  to  its 
lamentable  failure  to  lead  successfully  in  the  early 
years  of  the  century.  But  its  overthrow  was  not 

86 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

complete  until  after  1815,  and  was  a  gradual  pro 
cess,  while  in  Pennsylvania  the  colonial  gentry  had 
been  unhorsed  suddenly  in  1/76  and  a  new  element 
had  taken  the  helm. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  capture  of  Wash 
ington  in  the  summer  of  1814  would  not  contribute 
to  the  success  of  the  administration  in  the  fall 
elections  of  that  year,  and  in  Philadelphia  there 
was  also  the  chronic  trouble  of  the  factional  dis 
putes  which  raged  between  the  Binns  and  Duane- 
Leib  elements  of  the  party.  The  consequence  of 
these  causes  was  that,  though  the  State  went 
Democratic,  the  Democrats  were  badly  beaten  in 
Philadelphia,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll,  with  the  rest  of 
the  Congressional  ticket,  was  defeated.  He  took 
part,  of  course,  in  the  remaining  short  session,  but 
with  that  period  his  political  career  came  to  an  end 
for  many  years. 

That  he  had  made  for  himself  a  very  prominent 
position  cannot  be  doubted.  Entering  Congress 
not  only  for  the  first  time,  but  a  young  man  and 
unknown  to  the  public  but  for  a  very  few  years, 
he  left  it  after  only  one  term  of  service,  with  a  high 
degree  of  prominence  and  having  earned  for  him 
self  the  position  of  a  leader.  An  eloquent  speaker, 
easily  holding  an  audience  for  a  long  period,  he 
was,  moreover,  a  ready  debater,  quite  able  to  give 
blows,  and  many  of  his  speeches  were  full  of  a 
learning  which  was  very  valuable.  Indeed,  this 

87 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

was  rather  characteristic  of  them,  and  I  do  not 
think  he  often  spoke  without  study.  His  corre 
spondence  shows  that  he  frequently  wrote  to  Mr. 
Duponceau,  Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Dallas,  and  others 
for  aid  upon  points  which  he  wanted  to  treat. 
He  was,  moreover,  as  his  writings  show,  intimate 
with  the  cabinet  and  well  acquainted  with  their 
plans,  and  he  formed  friendships  with  Mr.  Madi 
son  and  Mr.  Monroe  which  endured  as  long  as 
their  lives.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  plans 
of  the  campaign  intended  to  be  made  in  1815 
against  Halifax,  and  wrote 25  later  that  the  support 
of  New  England  had  been  promised  for  it  by  a 
member  of  the  Hartford  Convention.  But  this 
campaign  happily  became  unnecessary  through 
the  treaty  of  peace ;  and  after  sharing  in  the  votes 
of  thanks  and  the  exultation  which  all  felt  at  Jack 
son's  pride-restoring  victory  and  at  the  peace,  he 
went  home  on  the  28th  of  February — with  the 
country  all  still  in  a  blaze  of  triumph — to  assume 
the  duties  of  United  States  District  Attorney  at 
Philadelphia,  to  which  position  he  had  been  ap 
pointed  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Dallas,  who  had 
just  resigned  it  in  order  to  enter  the  cabinet  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

In  regard  to  his  position  in  the  councils  of  his 
party,  he  was  undoubtedly  intimate  with  all  the 
leaders,  including  those  who,  like  Binns,  were 
mostly  concerned  in  practical  politics,  and  he  was 

88 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

at  times  active  in  questions  of  patronage,  as  nota 
bly  in  the  removal  of  Postmaster-General  Granger; 
but  I  do  not  think,  on  the  whole,  that  he  was 
usually  called  upon  to  take  a  very  active  part  in 
the  practical  movements  of  the  political  game.  He 
had  not  that  cool  calculation  and  self-restraint 
which  are  needed,  and  his  correspondence  shows 
that  his  friends  thought  him  rather  lacking  in  the 
sort  of  judgment  necessary  in  such  matters. 
Shortly  before  his  election  he  had  formed  a  plan  to 
found  and  edit  a  Republican  magazine  in  conjunc 
tion  with  service  in  Congress,  and  with  this  object 
in  view  had  drafted  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison  detail 
ing  his  plan  and  asking  for  an  appointment  to  a 
foreign  mission  to  enable  him  to  collect  certain 
material  necessary  for  his  purpose.  He  consulted 
Mr.  Rush  about  this  plan,  and  was  dissuaded  from 
it  by  that  gentleman,  whose  greater  knowledge  of 
official  decorum  and  methods  was  much  shocked 
by  Mr.  Ingersoll's  blunt  directness. 

The  following  letters  of  his  are  from  the  war 
period : 

To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  WASHINGTON  18  December  1813. 

"MYDEARSiR, —  .  .  .  Astoi8o5 — great  indeed  was  the 
occasion  and  great  your  effort,  greater  your  success.  But 
what  are  such  struggles  to  the  grand  conflict  of  the  present 
day  ?  Moreover,  your  fine  sentiment  that  this  holy  war 
has  advanced  us  a  century  per  saltern  in  power  and  char- 

89 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

acter  shall  excuse  so  bad  a  reason  for  such  indefensible 
sequestration  as  you  attempt  to  defend  in  your  own  in 
stance. 

"  I  must  add  now  to  the  requisitions  preferred  in  my  last 
letter.  We  contemplate  important  alterations  in  the  Judi 
ciary  such  as  abolishing  the  Circuit  Courts  as  at  present 
organized,  enlarging  the  number,  jurisdiction  and  salaries 
of  the  District  judges,  giving  the  Supreme  nothing  but 
appellate  powers  &c  £c.  What  do  you  say  ?  and  remem 
ber  that  if  you  advise  any  plan,  I  shall  not  be  satisfied 
with  an  outline.  I  wish  the  Judiciary  Committee  had 
leave  to  offer  a  reward  for  the  best  drafted  bill,  phrase, 
point  and  all — to  save  me  from  such  an  undertaking,  and, 
what  is  of  more  consequence,  to  save  the  nation  from  my 
performance.  .  .  ." 

To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  WASHINGTON  26  January  1814. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — -  .  .  .  I  wish  heartily  your  resolutions 
had  arrived  about  six  weeks  earlier.  Agreeably  to  instruc 
tions  from  my  abominable  Committee  I  carried  thro'  a 
couple  of  Resolutions,  which  are  the  same  as  yours  in  sub 
stance  without  their  pith  or  elegance,  except  in  the  circum 
stance  of  asking  leave  to  act  and  consult  in  recess.  I  am 
therefore  prevented  the  adoption  of  your  suggestion  in  the 
main — and  as  to  the  latter  part  of  it  I  am  quite  sure  that 
leave  wd.  not  be  given.  Congress  are  not  so  true  to  their 
fealty  to  lawyers  as  to  entrust  any  of  them  with  such  author 
ity.  The  traces  of  the  Midnight  Judiciary  and  its  Midnight 
repeal,  the  conflict  between  the  bar  and  the  community, 
the  associations  between  ideas  of  English  common  law  and 
American  common  sense,  in  short  the  whole  field  of  con 
troversy  and  sensibility  on  this  subject  must  be  turned 

90 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

over  and  cultivated  afresh  for  some  time  before  such  a 
commission  can  be  obtained. 

"  I  am  very  much  obliged  by  your  memoranda  of  the 
Militia  principles  as  settled  by  Gen.  Washington's  admin 
istration  and  subscribed  to  in  94.  But  do  you  consider 
the  case  of  the  constitution  as  between  one  state  and  an 
other  the  same  as  that  between  a  state  and  its  foreign 
frontier?  ..." 

To  NICHOLAS  BIDDLE. 

"  WASHINGTON  14  December  1814. 

"  DEAR  SIR, — I  do  not  believe  that  Congress  will  adopt 
any  important  measures  of  preparation  for  another  cam 
paign  beyond  the  enactment  of  a  system  of  severe 
and  productive  taxation,  and  perhaps  the  establishment 
of  a  national  bank.  On  all  military  bills  and  subjects  the 
diversity  of  sentiment  is  so  great  and  irreconcilable  that 
I  have  little  expectation  of  any  thing  being  done.  If  we 
can  raise  money  I  suppose  we  can  raise  men,  and  we  can 
raise  money  if  we  can  surmount  our  own  preposterous 
prejudices  and  crudities.  My  own  views  would  not  how 
ever  refer  the  creation  of  an  army  to  the  Treasury.  I 
would  attempt  a  more  direct  and  I  think  a  more  appro 
priate  application  of  the  physical  resources.  But  there  is 
certainly  not  a  majority  of  this  opinion.  I  shall  be  glad 
of  an  opportunity  to  exchange  with  you  the  news  of  Wash 
ington  for  the  news  of  Harrisburg,  and  remain  at  all  times. 

To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  30  April  1815. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — Well,  and  what  do  you  think  of  this  ? 
We  have  seen  the  scenes  changed  at  a  theatre,  we  have 
read  the  Arabian  Nights  entertainment,  and  we  have 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

heard  the  wind  blow  at  Washington.  But  they  are  all 
nothing  to  this.  If  Solomon  could  publish  a  new  edition 
of  his  works  don't  you  think  he'd  leave  out  that  completely 
exploded  saw  which  says  there  is  nothing  new  under  the 
sun  ?  It  is  all  vanity  and  vexation  might  be  left  in  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Bourbons,  but  the  other  should  be  suppressed 
in  compliment  to  the  Bonapartes.  Did  you  ever  see  such 
fine  acting  ?  Why  he  beats  poor  Louis  at  his  only  guard, 
that  of  whimpering.  To  invade  France  at  the  head  of  a 
thousand  vagabonds,  and  have  'em  all  to  dine  with  him 
at  the  Tuileries  three  weeks  afterwards.  Happy  he  who 
has  lived,  a  spectator,  not  an  actor,  for  the  last  eighteen 
months  at  Paris — he  will  have  had  the  historical  experi 
ence  of  many  ages, — he  may  die  when  he  likes — Our 
friends  the  Bulls  will  have  a  blessed  time  of  it.  If  London 
was  a  scene  of  unexampled  agitation  when  the  adventurer 
was  but  at  Grenoble,  what  will  they  say  to  it  when  he 
reviews  the  enchanted  armies  at  Paris  ?  Poor  Dr.  Eustis,* 
I  fear,  will  be  the  greatest  sufferer.  Before  he  reaches  his 
destination  the  king  of  the  Netherlands  may  be  a  squeezed 
orange.  Our  little  exploits  at  Orleans,  which  we  flattered 
ourselves  would  make  such  a  noise  seem  to  be  almost 
drowned  in  the  clamor  of  these  great  European  tocsins. 
I  hope  you  have  had  an  opportunity  of  reminding  O'Neale 
to  send  my  engraving.  I  am  afraid  now  of  Serrurier'sf 
asking  for  it  back  again,  and  it  would  be  ungenerous  to 
take  it  from  me  since  the  restoration  when  I  would  have 
hung  it  up  at  the  worst  of  times. 

"We  had  a  very  elegant  peace  ball,  tho'  not  quite  as 

*  Dr.   William  Eustis,   Secretary  of  War  from   1809  to 
1813,  had  been  appointed  minister  to  Holland  in  1814. 
f  The  French  minister. 

92 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

much  so  as  the  paragraph  in  the  Press,  which  I  ascribe  to 
Mr.  Manager  George. 

"  I  am  looking  every  day  for  the  Attorney  Gen.*  to  con 
dole  with  him  on  the  news. 

"  Eppes  has  lost  his  election — he  deserved  it.  What 
with  the  election  of  Randolph  and  the  restoration  of  Bona 
parte  what  an  animated  year  or  two  we  shall  have." 

*  Richard  Rush  was  United  States  Attorney-General 
from  1814  to  1817,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  constantly  referred 
to  him  by  his  official  title.  His  sympathies  were  with  the 
English,  and  this  was  a  point  of  difference  between  him 
and  Mr.  Ingersoll. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Bar — Wide  Correspondence — Visit  to  Mr.  Madison — 
Mr.  Monroe  and  the  Loan  obtained  for  him — His  Aid 
invoked  in  a  Matrimonial  Venture — Letters — Diary  from 
Washington  in  1823 — His  Industry — Public  Orations — 
Address  on  Reception  of  La  Fayette — "Europe  long 
ago." 

UPON  his  return  to  Philadelphia  after  the  close 
of  the  war,  Mr.  Ingersoll  entered  upon  a  long 
period  of  great  activity  at  the  bar.  He  wrote  the 
next  winter  that  he  was  determined  "  to  be  a  mere 
lawyer,  jurisconsultus  merus,  for  the  next  15  years. 
...  I  have  been  so  much  from  home  during  the 
last  two  or  three  years  debauching  in  politics  that 
one  half  the  foolish  world  still  seems  to  think  that 
I  am  in  Washington  and  not  in  Philadelphia  this 
winter;  therefore  I  should  not  suffer  anything 
short  of  the  most  crying  exigency  to  take  me 
from  home  at  least  for  a  year  or  two  till  I  afford 
the  requisite  proof  that  I  am  in  Philadelphia  and 
not  in  Washington." 

He  continued  to  hold  the  position  of  United 
States  District  Attorney  for  more  than  fourteen 
years,  so  that  his  term  of  service  has  never  been 
equalled  by  any  other  incumbent  of  the  office; 

94 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  he  had,  moreover,  a  large  and  varied  private 
practice.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  before 
he  went  to  Congress  in  1813  his  professional  in 
come  was  as  large  as  six  thousand  dollars, — an 
enormous  sum  in  those  days ;  and  he  has  himself 
recorded  that  in  a  single  day  in  December  of  181 1 
he  was  consulted  in  the  following  matters.  A 
French  merchant,  ruined  by  a  verdict  against  him, 
applied  for  his  aid  in  securing  a  new  trial,  and 
assured  him  he  would  not  survive  a  repulse.  A 
carpenter,  half  distracted,  applied  to  him  to  recover 
his  daughter,  who  had  been  enticed  from  his  house 
and  ruined.  A  well-known  citizen,  who  had  failed, 
applied  to  him  to  be  his  second  in  some  duels  he 
expected,  and  for  his  professional  aid.  A  lady  of 
fifty-five,  who  had  married  a  man  much  younger 
than  herself,  consulted  him  in  the  deepest  grief  at 
finding  that  her  supposed  husband  had  already 
been  married  to  another  woman. 

The  period  of  his  most  active  practice  after  his 
return  from  Congress  was  one  which  called  for 
the  highest  abilities  in  a  lawyer ;  not  only  were 
questions  of  great  moment  on  constitutional  points 
pending  from  the  time  of  the  war,  but  in  those 
early  years  reported  precedents  were  but  few,  and 
the  lawyer  had  to  depend  upon  his  full  mastery 
and  accurate  application  of  broad  principles.  In 
this  there  was  a  very  high  interest  and  an  absolute 
need  of  constructive  ability  before  a  lawyer  could 
95 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

attain  any  marked  success.  In  all  the  duties  which 
thus  fell  upon  him,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  a  hard  worker 
and  achieved  a  high  reputation.  He  became  soon 
a  most  dangerous  opponent,  and  was  always  most 
interesting  to  listen  to, — so  much  so  that  even 
now,  more  than  a  half-century  since  he  practically 
retired  from  the  bar,  I  have  found  among  a  few 
of  the  oldest  lawyers  a  recollection  and  among  a 
good  many  others  a  strong  tradition  of  his  brilliant 
oratory,  with  a  few  snatches  from  speeches  of  his 
which  exist  only  thus  in  memory,  but  seem  in 
some  way  to  have  burned  themselves  into  the  very 
mind  of  his  hearer.  But  the  special  character 
istics  which  marked  him  at  the  bar  will  be  best 
considered  more  at  length  hereafter,  when  speaking 
of  him  as  an  orator  generally. 

We  must  think  of  him  during  a  good  many 
years  following  the  war  as  devoting  himself  to  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  at  first  apparently  in  a 
large  degree  to  the  exclusion  of  other  matters,  but 
with  a  gradual  reawakening  of  his  attention  to 
public  affairs.  He  had  been  and  became  again 
later  a  most  active  correspondent,  keeping  up  a 
constant  exchange  of  letters  with  a  great  number 
of  people,  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  and  though 
a  large  portion  of  his  correspondence  (which  he 
kept  carefully)  was  destroyed  after  his  death, 
enough  remains  to  show  that  it  was  very  wide.  It 
was  in  this  way  that  men  of  his  day  procured  a 

96 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

great  deal  of  the  news  which  we  now  get  from  the 
public  prints ;  and  as  Mr.  Ingersoll's  correspond 
ents  were  principally  men  actively  engaged  in 
public  life,  he  was  no  doubt  very  well  informed 
upon  the  history  of  his  time.  With  Mr.  Madison 
he  always  maintained  the  friendship  which  had 
been  formed  during  the  war,  and  corresponded 
with  him  frequently.  Their  letters  show  that  he 
had  as  early  as  1817  formed  the  plan  of  writing  a 
history  of  the  war  with  England,  and  had  written  to 
Mr.  Madison  in  regard  to  papers  in  his  hands  bear 
ing  upon  the  subject.  In  May,  1836,  but  a  month 
and  a  half  before  Mr.  Madison's  death,  he  and  his 
eldest  daughter  went  by  invitation  on  a  visit  to 
Montpelier,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  the  pleasure  of 
personally  renewing  his  acquaintance  after  twenty 
years'  interruption.  Mr.  Madison  was  then  very 
weak  in  body,  but  his  mind  was  clear,  and  they 
had  long  conversations  upon  subjects  of  public 
interest.  After  his  death  in  June,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
published  an  account26  of  the  visit  and  of  the  views 
Mr.  Madison  had  expressed,  containing  interesting 
details  of  his  opinions  of  his  contemporaries,  as 
well  as  of  the  great  questions  which  were  at  that 
time  beginning  to  agitate  the  public  mind. 

With  Mr.  Monroe,  too,  he  often  corresponded, 
and  quite  a  mass  of  letters  has  survived  concern 
ing  a  loan  he  obtained  for  him  in  1822,  which 
illustrate  curiously  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  large 

7  97 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

loans  at  that  day  even  for  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  Mr.  Monroe's  affairs  had  become 
straitened  by  his  long  absence  from  home,  and 
he  was  anxious,  moreover,  to  aid  his  daughter. 
He  accordingly  wrote  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  on  Novem 
ber  25,  1822,  to  say  that  he  wanted  a  loan  of  fif 
teen  or  twenty  thousand  dollars  on  a  farm  of 
three  thousand  five  hundred  acres  near  Charlottes- 
ville,  Virginia,  which  he  estimated  to  be  worth 
thirty  or  forty  thousand  dollars.  He  proposed 
to  mortgage  this  farm,  and  offered  to  have  it  ap 
praised  first  by  any  of  his  neighbors, — Jefferson, 
Madison,  the  Barbours,  or  Judge  Nelson,  as  the 
lender  might  prefer.  If  this  could  not  be  obtained, 
he  would  like  to  have  one  to  five  thousand  dollars 
loaned  him  for  a  short  time  on  his  note ;  but  he 
cautioned  Mr.  Ingersoll  against  bringing  his  name 
before  any  bank,  nor  did  he  want  it  mentioned 
except  in  confidence  to  a  person  presumed  to  be 
willing  to  make  the  loan.  Mr.  Ingersoll  took  the 
matter  up  at  once,  and  soon  found  the  larger  loan 
impossible  to  obtain  upon  security  out  of  the  State 
and  at  such  a  distance,  but  he  did  succeed  in 
obtaining  a  promise  of  two  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  upon  the  security  of  the  mortgage.  Mr. 
Monroe  wished,  however,  to  be  able  to  sell  the 
land,  and  objected  to  giving  a  mortgage  of  such  a 
large  tract  for  so  small  a  sum ;  finally  he  mort 
gaged  another  smaller  tract  of  ground.  He  re- 

98 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

quested  that  the  mortgage  should  not  be  recorded 
for  eight  months  (the  time  allowed  by  the  law  of  Vir 
ginia),  as  he  expected  to  pay  it  off  within  that  time. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  loan  appears  to  have  been 
still  partially  unpaid  in  1826,  and  long  before  that 
time  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  discovered  that  the  non- 
recording  of  the  mortgage  upon  its  execution 
rendered  it  void  as  against  purchasers,  the  law  of 
Virginia  upon  the  subject  having  been  changed 
by  a  very  recent  statute.  Such  were  the  difficul 
ties  of  lenders  and  of  borrowers,  even  in  the  most 
exalted  station,  in  those  days.  It  does  not  appear 
who  was  the  lender  in  this  instance,  the  papers 
having  been  all  drawn  in  Mr.  Ingersoll's  own 
name. 

But  his  aid  was  occasionally  invoked  in  still 
more  curious  cases.  Thus,  in  1826  he  was  called 
upon  in  a  matrimonial  venture.  A  Boston  ac 
quaintance,  fifty-five  years  of  age,  and  formerly  a 
man  of  some  eminence  at  the  bar  at  his  home  and 
in  Washington,  who  had  lost  his  wife  some  six 
months  before,  wrote  of  the  dismal  woe  incident 
upon  his  loss,  and  told  how  his  first  impulse  had 
been  to  fly  from  the  insupportable  gloom  and 
solitude  of  his  household  and  "  seek  refuge  by  a 
tour  through  Europe,  or,  probably,  if  I  should 
continue  to  exist,  by  a  residence  of  some  years  in 
foreign  climes."  But  soon,  he  added,  the  welfare 
of  a  son  deterred  him  from  this  plan,  and  he  de- 

99 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

cided  he  must  stay  at  home,  "or,  rather,  where  I 
am."  He  then  went  on  to  say  that  he  had  met  a 
certain  lady  of  Philadelphia  once  some  eighteen 
years  before,  with  whom  he  had  been  much 
pleased.  Her  manners  were  then  a  little  too  gay 
and  fashionable,  but  since  then,  he  wrote, — 

"there  has,  of  course,  been  abundant  time  for  the  evap 
oration  of  all  the  more  volatile  properties  of  her  more 
youthful  character  and  for  maturing  and  consolidating  its 
more  substantial  parts,  so  that,  at  this  time,  she  must,  I 
should  suppose,  be  exactly  such  a  kind  of  woman  as  a 
man  even  of  sedate  disposition  might  learn  to  admire  and 
cherish." 

He  had  learned  recently,  he  added,  that  she  was 
still  unmarried,  and  he  wanted  Mr.  Ingersoll's  opin 
ion  whether  the  connection  would  be  a  desirable 
one  for  him,  and  further  wanted  him  to  "  make 
some  incidental  inquiry  as  to  the  present  state  of 
her  mind  in  regard  to  such  an  alliance."  The 
black  gloom  of  the  first  part  of  the  letter  melts 
away  into  a  half-jocose  style  when  the  writer  is 
dealing  with  the  proposed  new  love.  A  second 
letter  shows  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  for  some  reason 
advised  against  attempting  the  alliance  in  ques 
tion  ;  but  his  correspondent,  though  thus  convinced 
that  the  "fair  personage"  he  referred  to  would  not 
suit,  hoped  for  some  hint  or  advice  from  Mr.  In 
gersoll  as  to  some  other  suitable  feminine,  in  re- 

100 


CHARLES   JARED   iNGERSOLL 

gard  to  whose  character  he  could  only  say  in 
general  terms,  "  The  nearer  the  approximation  in 
everything  to  the  exact  similitude  of  that  One, 
whose  loss,  I  know,  can  never  be  wholly  repaired, 
the  nearer  would  be  the  consummation  of  all  my 
sublunary  hopes  and  wishes."  With  this  the 
correspondence  ends,  nor  do  I  know  what  was  the 
outcome  of  the  widower's  plans. 

The  following  letters  will  give  some  idea  of  Mr. 
Ingersoll's  life,  and  the  diary  from  Washington  in 
1823  enclosed  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Rush  contains 
an  extremely  interesting  picture  of  the  then  life  in 
the  capital  and  of  the  political  struggles  of  the 

day: 

To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  31  March  1816. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — Appearances  indicate  the  failure  of 
the  bank,  and  your  resignation,  both  of  which  I  regret. 
On  s'ennuie  de  tout  say  the  people  who  have  provided 
more  liberally  than  any  other  against  that  disorder.  Laudet 
diversa  sequentes.  But  are  you,  excuse  the  question,  are 
you  quite  sure  that  the  first  time  you  take  your  seat  in  a 
hot  room  at  a  bad  tavern  round  an  arbitration  table  you 
will  not  recur  to  the  Treasury,  or  at  least  to  public  life, 
with  something  like  a  memory  of  joys  that  are  past  ?  Our 
friend  the  Attorney  General*  and  I  have  often  agreed  that 
you  excel  at  the  bar,  but  that  you  were  made  for  public 
life.  Pray  note  the  diversity.  Why  not  have  George  and 

*  It  has  been  already  said  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  often  re 
ferred  to  Mr.  Richard  Rush  by  his  then  official  title. 
101 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

me  to  buffet  it  in  the  sea  of  law,  till  forty  five  or  forty  ? — I 
mean  to  shut  up  shop  then — and  recreate  yourself  in  some 
more  elevated  &  less  teasing  sphere  .  .  ." 


To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS  (undated). 

"MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  presume  by  your  silence  that  you 
found  my  last  letter  unanswerable.  I  had  some  conversa 
tion  on  the  subject  this  morning  with  George.  .  .  .  You 
and  Mr.  Monroe,  with  our  friend  Mr.  Attorney  may  do  a 
world  of  good.  I  long  to  see  the  Executive  Department 
what  the  constitution  designed  it  to  be,  an  independent 
one,  not  the  handmaid,  the  ancilla,  I  might  say,  the 
strumpet  of  the  Legislative.  On  all  public  considerations 
your  staying  in  the  Treasury  is,  without  compliment,  a  na 
tional  desideratum.  As  to  the  private  views,  it  would  be  im 
pertinent  in  me  to  analyse  them.  Certainly  you  have  earned 
the  otium  and  the  dignitatem,  both  by  your  long  labors 
as  a  professional  and  provincial  man,  and  by  your  most 
daring  and  generous  relinquishment  of  the  fruits  of  that 
field  for  the  stormy  and  alarming  ocean  of  the  general 
government  at  the  time  you  braved  its  portents  and 
espoused  its  fortunes.  .  .  .  But  to  a  man  of  proper  ambi 
tion  there  is  a  powerful  attraction  even  tho'  it  costs.  For 
instance — what  a  gratifying  triumph  over  disaffection  and 
meanness  and  stockjobbing  and  pursepride  you  gain  in  the 
publication  of  your  late  manifesto,  parts  of  which  I  have 
read  four  times  since  I  first  met  with  it  this  morning. 
Last  February  there  was  not  a  bank  director  nor  a  broker 
who  did  not  value  himself  at  a  much  higher  rate  than  the 
credit  of  his  country,  and  now  the  whole  genus  is  boule- 
verse  at  the  footstool  of  the  Treasury — where  they  ought 
to  be.  Without  a  compliment  again,  you  have  shewn 

102 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

those  profound  folks  that  you  understood  their  own  busi 
ness  better  than  they  did  themselves." 


To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  27  April  1816. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  been  too  much  occupied  lately 
to  write  you  an  account  however  short,  of  George's  debut, 
which  he  made  in  the  Circuit  Court,  in  a  manner  to  do 
him  great  credit  and  afford  you  great  pleasure.  .  .  . 

"If  you  are  really  returning  to  the  bar  I  wish  most 
heartily  that  you  could  have  undertaken  the  present  ses 
sion  of  the  Circuit  Court  with  us,  for  (in  dreadful  confi 
dence  imparted)  my  colleagues,  Mr.  Rawle  and  my  good 
father,  in  Oliver  Evans'  and  the  Spanish  cases,  are  so 
frostbitten  with  caution  &  reserve  that  after  being  signally 
defeated  in  the  first  I  am  afraid  our  prospects  are  by  no 
means  brilliant  in  the  last.  Mr.  Rawle  spoke  yesterday  in 
the  king  of  Spain  and  Oliver's,  and — if  I  had  been  re 
tained  on  the  other  side  I  would  have  been  better  pleased 
with  his  performance.  Oliver  Evans  has  only  run  away 
under  nonsuit  and  lives  to  fight  another  day — but  I  doubt 
whether  his  most  catholic  Majesty,  after  next  Tuesday  will 
be  able  to  maintain  his  persona  standi  in  judicio  [_szc\. 

"  The  question  of  who  was  the  true  king  is  but  faintly 
agitated  on  this  trial,  and  that  there  might  be  no  doubt  on 
that  point,  Judge  Washington  dined  yesterday  in  company 
with  one  of  the  monarchs  at  a  gentleman's  table.  What 
a  commentary  on  recent  events  !  and  on  the  inherent 
vicissitudes  of  humanity  !  Joseph,  whose  title  is  Count  de 
Survilliers,  has  taken  Lansdown  and  means  to  abide 
among  us.  Several  gentlemen  have  visited,  and  some 
have  entertained  him — among  the  former  de  Kantzow,  on 
103 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  strength  of  his  near  connection  with  the  crown  prince. 
We  had  at  table  yesterday  the  exking,  Count  Regnault  de 
Saint-Jean  d'Angely,  Generals  Clausel  and  Lefebvre-Des- 
nouettes  and  some  of  their  attendants.  The  king  of 
France  has  treated  Madame  Joseph  with  marked  atten 
tion,  offered  to  except  her  and  her  daughters  from  the 
clause  of  proscription  against  the  Bonapartes  contained  in 
the  Amnesty  Act,  and,  on  her  declining  to  separate  her 
fortunes  from  her  husband's,  sent  her  permission  to  remain 
in  France  as  long  as  her  convenience  requires.  Joseph  is 
a  good  looking  middle  aged  man  and  talks,  I  am  told 
(for  tho'  I  have  had  two  or  three  little  entretiens  with  him, 
I  have  not  heard  him)  without  any  restraint  of  '  quand 
j'etois  roi  de  Naples'  and  'quand  j'etois  roi  d'Espagne.' 
He  did  so,  I  know,  yesterday  to  Gen.  Izard  who  sat  be 
tween  him  and  me  and  mentioned  it  to  me  the  moment 
afterwards.  They  were  perfect  strangers.  As  you  are  to 
be  vis  a  vis  sa  majeste  this  summer  on  the  banks  of  the 
Schuylkill  you  will  have  the  means  of  taking  his  altitude 
yourself.  He  receives  and  returns  the  visits  of  such  per 
sons  as  think  proper  to  call  on  him  and  professes,  I  under 
stand,  to  prefer  the  society  of  Philadelphia  to  that  of  New 
York.  .  .  ." 

To  ALEX.  J.  DALLAS. 

"  5  August  1816. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR, — Brevity  is  the  soul  of  such  an  Inscrip 
tion  2?  as  that  designed  for  the  Capitol  and  I  have  not  time 
to  be  brief — I  do  not  like  the  re-z'/-erated  it  in  yours,  and 
would  certainly  put  out  the  Attorney  General's  torch — with 
which  exceptions  I  shall  be  content  to  find  either  of  your 
specimens  on  the  Capitol  when  I  go  to  Congress  again  in 
the  year  1832." 

104 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 


To  RICHARD  RUSH. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  28  September  1816. 

"DEAR  RUSH, —  .  .  .  You  see  we  could  not  even  put 
him  [Mr.  Dallas]  in  nomination  here,  hardly  so  at  least, 
much  less  elect  him,  for  Congress.  We  are  shivered  here 
to  little  atomies  as  Queen  Mab,  I  believe  it  is,  says,  tho'  I 
think  the  prospect  for  next  year  is  somewhat  more  encour 
aging.  It  is  obvious  that  Pennsylvania  will  then  undergo 
one  of  her  great  political  convulsions,  such  as  those  of  98, 
1805  &  1808,  but  my  present  impression  is,  a  remote  one, 
to  be  sure,  that  all  will  end  well,  and  not  the  worse  for  the 
purification  of  the  tempest.  The  Aurora  is  active,  malig 
nant,  and,  within  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill  &  Delaware, 
efficacious  too.  That  paper  is  too  powerful  for  the  Press. 
The  son  writes  as  much  and  better  than  the  father,  and 
they  have  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  compose  their  para 
graphs  £  columns  whereas  the  other  Editor  is  not  only 
alone,  without  the  same  readiness  with  his  style,  but  en 
grossed  besides  with  a  power  of  advertising  patronage  and 
other  means  of  making  money  to  which  he  bends  his 
force.  His  second  letter  in  answer  to  young  Duane  shows 
what  he  could  if  he  would,  but  instead  of  composing  two 
or  three  sheets  a  day  he  does  not  favor  us  with  more  than 
as  many  lines  generally,  and  they  are  not  powerful  in 
proportion  to  their  brevity.  I  doubt  whether  even  Seybert 
&  Anderson,  who  are  on  both  tickets,  will  be  elected,  so 
deep  and  bitter  are  the  dissentions  now  prevailing.  The 
Clinton  project  I  am  told  was  completely  mortified  at  Car 
lisle,  tho'  they  say  old  Hiester  is  at  the  bottom  of  it  as  I 
see  Reed  is  at  the  top.  ..." 


105 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 


To  RICHARD  RUSH. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  23  April  1817. 

"DEAR  RUSH, —  .  .  .  We  are  beginning  to  be  quite 
animated  in  Pennsylvania  with  the  canvass  for  Governor. 
My  friend  Sergeant  (Tom),  who  is  a  partisan,  allows  Mr. 
Hiester  to  cross  the  Susquehanna  with  a  majority  of  seven 
thousand,  picked  up  principally  in  Philadelphia,  Lancaster 
and  Berks,  where  it  is  supposed  his  name  will  preponder 
ate  heavily,  and  then  overcomes  him,  nevertheless,  by  a 
tramontane  vote  which  is  to  devour  the  7000  and  leave  a 
final  balance  of  13000  in  favor  of  Mr.  Findlay.  It  is  an 
important  election.  Should  Mr.  Hiester  succeed,  I  pre 
sume  the  plan  would  be  a  coalition  with  Governor  Clinton 
to  secure  all  the  Eastern  and  middle  States  to  Maryland 
included  for  his  presidency  in  1821.  That  would  yield 
about  1 1 8  votes.  Gov.  Snyder  has  certainly  lost  ground 
latterly,  especially  in  this  quarter  where  some  of  his  late 
appointments  have  been  shocking,  for  instance  Armstrong 
to  be  a  Judge.  Perhaps  too  the  setting  sun  is  always  apt 
to  be  shorn  of  some  of  his  radiance.  Sergeant  says  that 
Armstrong  and  such  appointments  are  made  thro'  Mr. 
Boileau's  influence  to  bring  odium  on  Mr.  Findlay,  who 
succeeds  to  the  support  of  Mr.  Snyder' s  party  tho'  it  is 
generally  considered  that  he  succeeds  against  the  Gov 
ernor's  wishes.  To  say  the  least  of  our  approaching  strug 
gle  it  is  more  stirring  than  any  since  that  of  1808,  and  a 
much  more  doubtful  one  than  that  of  1812.  To  surrender 
all  this  side  of  the  Allegheny  into  Mr.  Hiester's  hands  is 
giving  up  a  very  strong  first  position.  ..." 


106 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 
To  RUFUS  KING. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  27  June  1818. 

"MY  DEAR  SIR, —  ...  I  may  say  without  a  compli 
ment,  that,  as  far  as  I  have  heard  it  mentioned,  your  late 
admirable  speech  on  the  new  navigation  act  has  been 
universally  and  highly  commended  for  its  information, 
liberality  and  method.  I  read  it  with  uncommon  pleasure 
as  an  excellent  specimen  of  what  a  parliamentary  discourse 
ought  to  be,  and  a  most  powerful  argument  on  an  impor 
tant  subject.  If  it  should  prove  to  be  your  valedictory,  it 
is  an  enviable  close  to  an  elevated  public  life  ;  and  if  not, 
it  is  the  best  testimonial  that  can  be  afforded  that  such  a 
public  life  should  end  only  with  the  close  of  life  itself. 

"  For  the  last  three  or  four  years  a  scene  of  professional 
occupation  which  commands  all  my  time  has  deprived  me 
of  the  occasion,  and  indeed  almost  the  faculty,  certainly 
the  fondness  I  used  to  feel  for  sociable  correspondence  : 
but  of  none  of  the  fondness  with  which  I  shall  never  cease 
to  cherish  the  recollections  and  proofs  of  your  intercourse 
and  eminence  ;  and  tho'  unable  to  write  you  letters,  in 
token  of  my  respect  and  regard  I  am  ..." 

To  RICHARD  RUSH. 

"  PHILADELPHIA  23  February  1823. 

"DEAR  RUSH, — I  left  Washington  at  six  o'clock  on 
friday  morning,  and,  after  33  hours  incessant  riding  in  the 
mail  stage,  got  home  yesterday  to  dinner.  When  I  passed 
the  Susquehanna  on  the  4th  of  this  month  it  was  free  from 
ice  and  we  were  carried  over  in  a  ferryboat — Night  before 
last  I  walked  over  on  as  fine  a  bridge  of  ice  as  can  be, 
strong  &  dry. 

"  My  stay  in  Washington  was  one  week  less  than  I  had 
reckoned  on,  and  I  have  returned  fortunately  before  the 
107 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

roads  break  up,  when  as  you  know  the  travelling  for  some 
days  is  very  bad. 

"  Feeling,  as  I  have  for  some  time  past,  that  the  balance 
of  trade  has  been  with  you  for  the  last  twelve  month,  now 
that  you  have  got  at  last  into  the  true  currency  for  corre 
spondence,  with  your  Canning  and  Wellington  and 
Bentham  dinners,  as  well  as  other  such  very  agreeable 
consignments,  and  not  chusing  to  be  under  such  obligation 
as  I  felt  without  some  sort  of  return,  I  determined  to  write 
down  every  day  something  of  the  Washington  small  talk 
for  your  amusement,  supposing  that  no  coin  would  be 
more  acceptable  to  you  &  Mrs.  R.,  and  that  the  smaller 
the  better.  The  foregoing  *  eight  &  twenty  pages  are  the 
result. 

"Yours  very  sincerely" 

"  Wednesday  5  February  1823. — The  Drawing  room 
this  Evening  neither  so  crowded,  nor,  I  think,  so  pleasant 
as  I  have  known  such  assemblies  formerly.  Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  Calhoun  &  Mr.  Thompson  -f-  were  there,  not  Mr. 

*  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  transposing  this  letter  and 
introducing  it  before  the  diary,  which  it  follows  in  the 
original.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that 
Mr.  Rush  was  then  minister  to  England.  Mr.  Monroe 
was  near  the  middle  of  his  second  term  as  President,  and 
intrigues  were  already  rife  for  the  succession.  The  foot 
notes  are  marginal  notes  by  Mr.  Ingersoll,  evidently  added 
at  the  time  the  diary  was  written  ;  explanatory  notes  by 
myself  are  indicated  by  my  initials. 

f  Smith  Thompson,  of  New  York,  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
formerly  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York  ; 
soon  appointed  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. — W. 
M.  M. 

108 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Crawford — all  the  Judges  except  Washington  and  Todd, 
the  latter  detained  at  home  by  a  fall  said  to  be  serious — 
Mr.  Clay  in  fine  spirits — I  understand  that  he  talks  unre 
servedly  of  his  prospects  of  the  Presidency  and  says  that 
he  is  confident  of  his  success.  France  represented  by 
Count  de  Menou  and  old  Mr.  Petry.  England  by  Mr. 
Canning,  Russia  by  Mr.  Ellisen,  Sweden  by  Baron  Stack- 
elberg,  I  don't  know  whether  the  Mexican  minister*  was 
there,  Mr.  Anduagaf  spends  the  winter  at  New  York.  I 
saw  Mrs.  Mason's  fine  black  eyes  at  a  distance  but  had 
not  an  opportunity  of  speaking  to  her. 

"  6  February. — Went  to  Court  this  morning  for  the  first 
time — There  is  an  uncommon  number  of  lawyers  here  this 
term — Mr.  Emmet,  Mr.  Cheves,  who  is  now  a  member  of 
the  Philadelphia  bar,  Mr.  Webster,  who,  I  think,  may  be 
considered  since  Pinkney's  death  as  the  most  eminent 
practitioner  J  in  this  court,  Mr.  Ogden,  Mr.  Blake  of  Bos 
ton,  Mr.  Rowan  and  two  Hardins  of  Kentucky,  Mr. 
Harper,  Mr.  Winder,  Mr.  Hoffman,  Mr.  Sergeant,  and 
others  whom  I  do  not  know  or  remember — There  is  some 
confusion  in  the  business  owing  to  the  sickness  of  the 
Attorney  General,  who  is  again  unable  to  attend,  as  he 
was  also  at  the  last  term.g 

*  Don  Jose  Manuel  Zozaya,  the  first  minister  from  inde 
pendent  Mexico,  had  been  received  by  the  President  on 
December  12,  1822.— W.  M.  M. 

f  Chevalier  Don  Joaquin  Anduaga,  minister  from  Spain. 
—W.  M.  M. 

J  "  I  think  Genl.  Harper  has  done  the  most  business." 

§  "  He  has  got  well  &  attends.  They  say  Pinkney  was 
killed  by  his  physician's  giving  him  an  emetic  when  his 
complaint  was  apoplectic." 

109 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  About  3  o'clock  I  went  into  the  house  of  representa 
tives  where  the  galleries  were  crowded,  and  nearly  all  the 
Senate,  having  adjourned,  in  attendance  to  hear  as  was 
expected  an  angry,  personal  debate.  It  appears  that 
some  papers  communicated  to  the  house  last  Session  from 
the  Treasury  have  been  subjected  to  alterations,  by  marks, 
omissions,  marginal  notes  and  underscoring.  Mr.  Cook 
of  Illinois,  who  is  remarkable  for  his  active  hostility  to  Mr. 
Crawford  brought  up  this  affair  with  a  resolution  for  en 
quiry  with  a  view  to  his  prejudice.  The  special  committee 
reported  an  entire  exculpation  of  Mr.  Crawford  and  his 
clerk  Asbury  Dickins,  and  Gales  &  Seaton  the  printers  of 
the  house,  who  were  the  persons  implicated.  On  this 
result  some  of  Mr.  Crawford's  hot  friends  wish  to  turn  the 
battery  on  Mr.  Cook,  and  as  it  appears  that  a  member  of 
Congress  first  broached  the  accusation  by  an  article  in  a 
Newspaper  called  the  Washington  Republican  which  is 
published  here  by  McKinney,  their  effort  is  to  compel  a 
disclosure  of  that  Member's  name  (which  is  withheld),  with 
an  avowed  view  to  his  expulsion.  Yesterday  when  the 
resolution  was  moved,  some  very  insulting  expressions 
were  used  by  Mr.  Gilmer,  of  Georgia,  and  some  strong 
insinuations  thrown  out  by  Mr.  Hardin  &  Gov.  Wright, 
against  little  Cook,  as  he  is  called,  who  defended  himself 
with  considerable  ability.  The  gentlemen  where  I  lodge 
thought  there  must  be  duels.  But  the  debate  to-day  was 
peaceable  enough.  I  heard  Archer,  McLane,  Saunders, 
Sterling,  Smythe,  Reid,  Tatnall,  Ross  &  Rhea,  some  of 
whom,  particularly  Archer  &  McLane  spoke  very  well. 
Finally  the  motion  for  another  committee  of  enquiry  was 
adopted  by  a  large  majority.  Among  other  listeners  in 
the  lobby  was  a  very  old  gentleman  in  very  oldfashioned 
cloathes  with  a  long  goldheaded  cane  in  his  hand  who 
no 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

on  enquiry  I  found  to  be  John  Taylor  of  Caroline,  the 
Bentham,  one  may  say,  of  this  country,  now  in  his  seven 
tieth  year,  as  I  heard  him  say,  a  little  wrongheaded  in  his 
refinements,  but  yet  a  highly  respectable  £  even  exemplary 
character.  Randolph  was  there  coiled  up  in  a  large  great 
coat,  silent,  he  says  sick,  and,  as  others  say,  very  much 
out  of  spirits.  I  hoped  to  have  found  him  overflowing 
with  England  and  entertainment  but  I  am  told  he  does 
not  talk  at  all.  By  the  way  Mrs.  Decatur  has  resumed 
her  gaiety,  and  sees  a  great  deal  of  company  at  Kalorama, 
tho'  she  does  not  go  into  it  abroad,  I  understand — Further 
by  the  way  the  French  legation,  as  Count  de  Menou  ex 
presses  it,  have  been  connected  by  marriage  lately  with 
the  American  administration,  in  the  union  of  a  Mr.  de 
Bresson  with  Miss  Thompson  one  of  the  daughters  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  which  has  called  forth  a  week  of 
festivities  from  rather  a  calm  winter.  My  landlady — Mrs. 
Wilson's  account  of  it  is  that  they  were  first  married  3 
times,  then  withdrew  for  a  week  from  all  society  and  ob 
servation,  even  that  of  their  nearest  connexion,  and  then 
attended  balls  every  night  in  the  succeeding  week. 

"7  February, — I  had  some  interesting  conversation  to 
day  with  Mr.  Poinsett*  concerning  Mexico,  and  Cuba 
where  he  has  lately  been  on  public  service.  The  climate 
&  soil  of  Mexico,  he  says,  are  delightful.  The  finest 
market  in  the  world — fruits  &  vegetables  of  all  kinds  all 
the  year  round — plenty  of  game  of  all  sorts  &  excellent 
meats.  But  the  population  the  most  ignorant  &  wretched. 

*  Joel  R.  Poinsett,   then  a  member  of  Congress  from 
South  Carolina,  had  recently  been  on  a  special  mission  to 
Mexico,  and  some  years  before  had  been  on  public  busi 
ness  through  much  of  South  America. — W.  M.  M. 
in 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

The  Lazzaroni  of  Naples  are  incomparably  superior  to 
the  class  called  Lepros  *  in  the  city  of  Mexico.  The 
travelling  execrable.  The  Mexican  minister  who  is  here 
almost  frozen  by  the  cold  weather,  f  is  astonished  at  the 
excellence  of  the  taverns  &  the  accommodations  for  travel 
ling.  Mr.  P.  represents  Iturbide  as  an  abominable  despot, 
who  was  a  bloody  executor  of  the  Spanish  power  while  it 
prevailed,  and  is  now  as  tyrannical  a  master  himself. 
His  election  was  a  mere  contrivance  accomplished  by  two 
regiments  and  the  Lepros — he  is  an  usurper  of  the  most 
atrocious  character  who  maintains  his  supremacy  by 
means  as  bad  as  those  by  which  he  obtained  it.  There 
are  about  12  thousand  regular  soldiers  throughout  the 
Mexican  Empire,  and  a  good  militia,  but  they  are  inimical 
to  Iturbide.  Mr.  Poinsett  thinks  his  power  can  not  last — 
he  has  placed  money  in  this  country  with  a  view  no  doubt 
to  funds  in  case  of  his  downfall.  The  next  experiment 
will  be  of  a  republic — and  finally  the  several  provinces 
will  set  up  each  one  for  itself.  Such  is  Mr.  P. 's  opinion. 
Santa  Ana  is  a  man  of  no  principle  nor  talent — but 
Guadalupe  de  Victoria  J  is  an  honest  &  popular  repub- 
'lican. 

' '  Cuba,  he  says,  is  ripe  for  Union  with  the  U.  S.  when 
ever  Spain  is  forced  to  change  her  constitution.  Even  the 
old  Spaniards  ;  and  the  Creoles  to  a  man — he  had  direct 

*  This  is  the  word  used  by  Mr.  Ingersoll,  but  I  have 
not  been  able  to  ascertain  its  meaning.  Should  it  not 
read  mestizos  ? — W.  M.  M. 

f  "  He  spends  all  the  cold  weather  in  bed — by  which  he 
will  be  bedridden  soon." 

I  Guadalupe  de  Victoria  became  President  of  Mexico 
in  1824.— W.  M.  M. 

112 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

communications  to  this  effect  with  many  of  their  most  in 
fluential  characters.  They  do  not  however  desire  any 
change  until  Spain  compels  it  by  some  radical  alterations 
in  her  present  constitution.  Whenever  she  does  Cuba 
will  ask  for  our  protection,  and  for  admission  into  the 
union.  If  we  reject  them,  they  will  then  apply  to  Eng 
land.  But  at  present  Mr.  P.  says  they  are  extremely 
averse  to  her  superintendence.  There  have  been  two 
English  agents  at  Havana  for  some  time.  Cuba  has  had 
an  agent  here  in  communication  with  our  government,  his 
name  is  Morales. 

"  It  is  a  very  momentous  measure  for  the  decision  of  this 
country.  Much  may  be  said  against  it.  But  I  have  long 
tho't  that  whenever  Cuba  presents  herself,  without  any 
forcing  or  manoeuvring  on  our  part,  we  must  e'en  take  the 
good  the  Gods  provide  us.  The  Western  States  are  all 
anxiety  for  it — to  them  Cuba  in  British  hands  would  be 
intolerable.  The  Southern  States  have  no  objection.  The 
middle  and  east  would  consent,  tho'  the  latter  perhaps 
not  freely,  as  it  would  add  immensely  to  a  preponderance 
which  they  see  with  jealousy  &  dread  already. 

"I  understand  that  Gen.  Jackson  has  been  nominated 
Minister  to  Mexico  without  knowing  whether  he  will  accept 
the  appointment ;  and  that  it  was  first  offered  to  Mr.  Brown 
who  declined  it.  Benton  Prevost  is  before  Senate  as 
Charge  to  Chili,  or  Lima,  I  forget  which.  But  they 
threaten  to  negative  the  nomination  if  not  withdrawn. 

"8  Febmary. — Water  froze  in  my  chamber  last  night 
close  along  side  of  a  fire  which  when  I  went  to  bed  at 
eleven  o'clock  was  a  large  one.  All  January  was  open 
pleasant  weather,  but  there  have  been  some  days  this 
week  of  that  fierce  cold  for  which  I  think  Washington  is 
remarkable.  This  is  a  bitter  cold  day. 

8  113 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"Last  evening  at  Mrs.  Brown's  ball  Mr.  Clay  went  up 
to  the  table  where  Mr.  Adams  was  playing  chess  with 
Judge  Thruston,  and  said,  with  that  Kentucky  frankness 
which  was  so  much  admired  by  Ld.  Castlereagh,  Well, 
Mr.  Adams,  always  playing  great  games.* 

"Among  a  number  of  persons  there  of  your  particular 
acquaintance  were  Mrs.  Mason  and  her  son  the  Secretary 
of  Legation  to  Mexico,  Mrs.  Hay  enceinte,  Miss  Nancy 
Spear,  Mr.  Payne  Tod  who  reports  your  friends  Mr.  & 
Mrs.  Madison  as  perfectly  well,  Miss  Hopkinson  who  is 
on  a  visit  to  Mrs.  Adams,  besides  the  thrice  married  bride 
and  her  tall  good  looking  french  husband,  with  hosts  of 
Secretaries,  attaches,  dancers  &  figurantes  of  all  ages  and 
conditions.  My  friend  Mr.  King,  I  find,  is  become  a  con 
stant  frequenter  of  all  these  revels — looking  remarkably 
well.  It  is  a  good  thing  for  Washington  that  Mr.  Brown 
declined  the  Mexican  mission,  if  he  did,  as  they  say  he 
did,  for  his  house  sustains  the  largest  &  best  part  of  the 
American  hospitality  of  this  holyday  metropolis.  Very 
handsome  dinners  and  very  frequent  evening  parties  of 
all  kinds,  Sunday  Evenings  and  all,  notwithstanding  Mr. 
Mcllvaine's  preaching  against  them  to  his  well  disciplined 
congregation  at  Georgetown. 

"  9  February. — My  political  oracle  Miss  Spear,  without 
indicating  her  individual  preference,  says  that  present 
prospects  flatter  Mr.  Adams's  election  to  the  presidency, 
and  it  is  certain  that  he  has  gained  a  great  deal  of  ground 
since  this  time  last  year  when  he  stood  low.  It  was 
confidently  said  that  Maine  to  a  certainty,  probably 
Newhampshire,  and  possibly  Connecticut  would  vote  for 

*  "The  wags  say  that  Mr.  Adams  is  writing  a  long 
answer  to  the  attack.' ' 

114 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Crawford,  and  that  Vermont  would  unite  with  New  York, 
pronounced  to  be  undoubtedly  with  him.  But  late  appear 
ances  seem  to  say  that  all  New  England  will  vote  for 
Adams,  which  gives  him  a  very  firm  footing  at  least,  and, 
strange  tho'  it  may  sound,  I  am  assured  by  persons  to  be 
relied  upon  that  Baltimore  is  with  him,  together  with  many 
other  parts,  perhaps  most,  of  Maryland.  These  things 
shew  that  the  members  of  Congress  neither  represent  nor 
regulate  the  sentiments  of  their  constituents  on  this  great 
question,  which  for  sometime  will  absorb  all  others  ;  for 
Holmes,  Chandler  and  Hill  the  leading  members  from 
Maine,  Smith,  Lloyd  &  Kent,  the  leading  members  from 
Maryland,  are  supposed  to  be,  if  not  committed,  at  all 
events,  attached  to  Crawford — Adams  is  by  no  means  un 
popular,  Crawford  is  by  no  means  popular,  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  yet  Lowrie,*  who  is  now,  I  take  it,  the  most  eminent 
&  able  man  of  the  State,  and  Roberts  &  Lacock,  and,  as 
I  am  told  and  believe,  most  of  the  standard  democrats 
there  are  the  advocates  of  Crawford  ;  and  Ingham,  Rogers, 
Dallas  and  all  those  who  rally  round  the  Franklin  Gazette, 
after  submitting,  as  they  know  they  must,  to  renounce 
their  nomination  Calhoun,  would  rather  I  believe,  go  over 
to  Clay  than  to  Adams.  Crawford's  friends,  I  am  assured, 
are  the  majority  now  in  both  houses  of  Congress — how  it 
will  be  in  the  next  Congress  I  don't  know. 

"I  had  some  curious  chat  the  day  before  yesterday 
with  a  personage  who  told  me  that  Calhoun  had  no  idea 
of  a  hope  till  he  found  that  Adams  cut  so  small  a  figure  ; 
and  that  then  he  went  into  Pennsylvania  for  a  nomination, 
while  poor  Lowndes,  notwithstanding  his  high  character 

*  Walter  Lowrie,  then  United  States  Senator  from  Penn 
sylvania.— W.  M.  M. 

"5 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

&  feelings,  did  the  same  in  Carolina,  where  his  premature 
nomination  was  the  consequence  of  a  race  between  him  & 
Calhoun  for  the  Southern  interest.  Till  that  autumn  it 
was  supposed  that  the  candidates  would  be  Adams  and 
Crawford.  But  Gov.  Clarke  having  beaten  Crawford  in 
Georgia,  it  was  said  that  he  was  down  there  and  of  course 
every  where  else  :  on  which  the  two  gentlemen  of  South 
Carolina  put  in  for  the  vacant  Southern  interest. 

"  In  all  these  reports  to  you  I  state  what  I  have  heard, 
not  what  I  think.  My  intelligence  is  of  course  derived 
from  my  associates,  and  my  digest  of  it  naturally  tinctured 
by  my  own  feelings.  I  have  my  predilection,  which  you 
may  guess  if  you  can,  and  very  likely  you  have,  or  believe 
you  have  at  any  rate.  But  you  must  give  me  credit  for  an 
endeavour  to  impart  intelligence  as  I  gather  it,  and  not 
my  own  views,  or  wishes — I  never  have  concealed  them 
and  never  shall,  especially  from  you.  But  in  this  Wash 
ington  Diary  composed  for  your  edification  &  amusement, 
I  am  a  chronicler  et  ne  plus  ultra. 

"  I  forgot  to  add  to  Mr.  Poinsett's  communications  that 
he  thinks  our  pirate  expedition  a  folly.  He  was  at  the 
little  place  called  Regla  over  against  Havana,  inhabited 
by  pirates,  who  sell  their  booty  to  the  people  of  Havana 
almost  without  disguise.  Whenever  necessary  they  are 
fishermen,  coasters,  market  people  and  what  not.  When 
Porter's  squadron  appears  they  will  be  sailing  about  in 
their  piratical  cruisers  as  the  craft  of  the  island — how  can 
he  capture  them.  And  if  he  should  commit  any  strong- 
handed  measure  ashore,  it  will  disturb  &  mar  that  attach 
ment  to  this  country  which  is  now  pervading  and  powerful 
there. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  you  will  agree  with  me  that  this 
Expedition  is  another  proof  to  the  almost  annual  evidence 
116 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  U.S.  afford  of  their  belligerent  tendencies.  In  1811 
there  was  Gen.  Harrison's  war  in  Indiana.  In  1812  '13 
&  '14  the  war  with  England.  In  1815  the  war  with 
Algiers.  In  1816  or  '17  the  war  with  the  Seminoles  & 
Spain.  And  now  the  war  with  the  pirates.  Our  temple 
of  Janus  is  hardly  ever  closed.  We  are  now  asking 
Mexico  to  extend  our  frontier  to  the  Colorado,  I  think 
it  is. 

"  I  had  a  tete  a  tete  of  two  or  three  hours  with  the  Presi 
dent  yesterday  :  in  the  course  of  which  he  went  into  a  long 
detail  of  his  losses  &  incumbrances  by  public  service  be 
ginning  with  his  french  mission  in  '94 — of  his  English  ex 
penditures  many  of  the  items  are  suspended  yet,  but  he 
hopes  they  will  be  allowed,  perhaps  by  Act  of  Congress, 
when  he  retires,  as  he  will  do,  after  40  years  of  public 
life,  poor,  and  probably  in  debt — his  Albemarle  Estate 
has  been  lately  valued  at  67  thousand  dollars  exclusive  of 
the  improvements — he  means  to  sell  that  property  if  he 
can  and  live  in  Loudoun  where  he  has  been  building  & 
improving — he  assured  me  that  he  paid  $1912  for  the  use 
of  the  mail  stage  alone  on  his  visit  to  the  eastward  from 
Philadelphia  to  Portland  &  Sackett's  Harbour,  which  he 
thinks  ought  to  be  reimbursed  to  him,  as  he  declares  that 
he  made  that  tour  with  a  view  to  the  promotion  of  the 
public  defences — he  says  that  Mr.  Pinckney  &  he  were 
induced  by  the  defenceless  state  of  the  country  to  sign  the 
Treaty  which  Mr.  Jefferson  rejected,  and  that  in  his  Rich 
mond  letter,  as  he  called  it,  he  announced  the  policy  which 
he  has  since  pursued. 

"  His  whole  discourse  was  a  fine  lesson  for  young  states 
men,  the  point  £  moral  of  the  whole  being  that  poverty  & 
ruin  are  most  apt  to  be  at  least  among  their  wages — he 
said  he  was  sure  that  the  Secretaries  must  all  be  great 
117 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

losers,  as  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  attend  to  private 
concerns.  They  ought  to  have  in  his  opinion  houses  at 
the  public  charge  &  ten  thousand  Dollars  a  year.  I 
enquired  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  affairs.  Mr.  Monroe  says  he 
has  lost  $20.000  by  suretyship  for  Wilson  C.  Nicholas.  I 
enquired  also  of  Mr.  Madison's  affairs  who  is  free  from 
debt  Mr.  Monroe  says.  He  took  the  advice  of  his  cabinet, 
so  he  told  me,  at  the  beginning  of  this  session,  after 
coming  to  a  determination  himself,  as  to  the  present 
system  of  expensive  entertainment  by  the  President.  They 
dissuaded  him  from  relinquishing  it,  on  the  ground  that  it 
would  be  blamed  as  meanness  and  that  he  had  better 
go  on  as  he  began — he  asked  my  opinion.  I  told  him 
that  I  tho't  he  had  better  go  on  as  he  began,  but  that 
I  had  long  said  that  it  was  a  wrong  system  and  that  the 
Presidents  would  see  the  necessity  of  beginning  by  a  re- 
linquishment  of  it.  They  must  see  company  no  doubt. 
But  I  should  suppose  that  a  dinner  a  month  would  do 
instead  of  3  a  week — perhaps  they  might  have  done 
with  their  promiscuous  entertainments  altogether  and 
invite  only  their  old  acquaintances  to  occasional  din 
ners. 

"After  all  this  moralising  he  kept  me  to  dinner.  We 
had  Judge  Dade  of  the  Northern  Neck,  Judge  Johnson  of 
Louisiana,  of  the  Senate,  Col.  Benton*  of  N.  Carolina  of 
the  H.  of  R.,  Dr.  Everett  the  President's  new  private  Sec 
retary  &  Mr.  Hay — and  some  North  Carolina  wine  called 
Scuppernong  very  pleasant,  something  like  Muscat.  I 
drank  nearly  3  glasses  of  it,  from  which  I  am  now  suffer- 

*  It  is  not  clear  to  whom  this  refers.     Colonel  Thomas 
H.  Benton  was  Senator  from  Missouri,  and  there  was  no 
other  Benton  in  the  House. — W.  M.  M. 
118 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ing  with  an  indigestion  the  common  consequence  of  wine 
to  those  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  taking  it. 

"Among  the  charges  allowed  foreign  ministers  Mr. 
Monroe  particularised  postage  to  complain  of  the  very 
small  sum  allowed  him  for  it,  and  said  that  Mr.  King's 
charge  had  been  350  pounds  sterling,  I  think  it  was,  and 
that  Sir  Francis  Baring  had  paid  2000  guineas  a  year  for 
postage.  This  I  had  heard  him  state  before.  I  one  day 
mentioned  it  afterwards  to  young  Francis  Baring  the  son 
of  Alexander  Baring  who  has  been  here,  perhaps  you 
know  him,  who  said  in  answer,  yes,  it  has  been  4000 
pounds  in  a  year.  Can  that  be  possible  ?  $  1 9000  &  upwards 
paid  by  a  house  for  the  postage  of  one  year's  correspond 
ence  !  I  am  aware  that  they  charge  arbitrarily,  by  esti 
mate,  and  not  exactly,  but  even  granting  that,  it  seems  to 
be  impossible.  It  far  outdoes  poor  Mr.  Monroe's  mail- 
hire,  blackmail,  as  he  might  truly  call  it.  Bache  *  waited 
on  him  in  Philad.  he  says  and  informed  him  that  the 
P.M.G.  had  given  orders  for  his  transportation  by  the 
mail  which  was  at  his  service  for  the  purpose.  The  Presi 
dent  said  it  would  be  very  acceptable  but  he  had  no  rights 
to  it  for  nothing,  and  when  his  bill  which  he  insisted  on 
paying  came  in  it  was  nearly  $2000  for  that  one  item — he 
paid  besides  the  horsekeep  &c. 

"  12  February, — My  conversation  with  the  President 
was  so  long  &  multifarious  that  I  dare  say  many  things 
occurring  in  it  will  come  to  my  recollection  hereafter  as 
some  do  now  which  I  did  not  think  of  yesterday.  I  told 
him  that  I  would  resign  in  your  favor,  if  you  chose  to  come 
to  the  bar  again  and  to  take  the  district  Attorneyship  as 
an  introduction  :  and  that  I  should  endeavour  to  have  you 

*  Richard  Bache,  Postmaster  at  Philadelphia. — W.  M.  M. 
119 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

nominated  as  you  were  before  by  Pennsylvania  for  the 
Vice-presidency — to  neither  of  which  suggestions,  I  think, 
did  he  make  any  reply. 

"  In  a  long  talk  I  had  the  day  before  yesterday  with  the 
Sec.  of  the  Navy  about  the  Presidency  I  think  I  gathered 
his  inclination  for  Mr.  Adams,  tho*  of  course  he  was  very 
wary  in  what  fell  from  him.  We  agreed  in  his  eminent 
attainments  but  I  suggested  the  strong  indications  at 
present  of  his  having  nearly  all  the  federal  votes,  and  all 
those  of  the  most  offensive  effect  in  party  estimates,  such 
for  instance  as  Hopkinson  &  Walsh  who  appear  to  rally  to 
him  instinctively,  the  result  of  which  would  be  as  in  the 
cases  of  Clinton  &  Hiester  to  force  an  attempt  at  coalition 
&  distribution  always  impracticable  &  pernicious.  Mr. 
Thompson  seemed  to  think  that  Mr.  Adams  might  avoid 
that,  but  said  if  he  did  not  his  downfall  in  4  years  was 
inevitable.  I  dare  say  he  might  avoid  it  in  framing  his 
administration,  but  I  don't  believe  it  would  be  possible  to 
do  so  in  the  course  of  his  administration.  A  large,  intelli 
gent,  respectable  and  bold  party  would  be  heard  and  felt, 
and  he  would  have  either  to  gratify  them  or  to  break  with 
them.  There  are  no  other  alternatives.  As  you  have 
often  said  there  are  but  two  parties,  between  which  every 
politician  must  choose.  Otis  is  in  nomination  for  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  and  I  believe  he  will  be  elected  against 
Eustis  his  competitor  who  has  been  forced  to  give  a  pledge 
of  his  adhesion  to  Adams.  Now  see  at  once  what  a 
monster  such  a  state  of  things  is.  In  the  federal  address 
announcing  Otis'  nomination  his  principal  merit  is  declared 
to  be  his  having  attended  the  Hartford  Convention.  All 
Eustis'  democracy  could  not  save  him  from  submission  to 
pledging  himself  to  a  man  the  loudest  of  whose  adherents 
in  New  England  will  be  the  partisans  of  the  Hartford  Con- 

120 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

vention.  To  be  sure,  as  Mr.  Thompson  justly  remarked, 
Adams  can't  prevent  the  federalists  voting  for  him,  and 
electing  him  should  it  be  so,  but  can  he  prevent  their  in 
part  at  least  ruling  him  afterwards  ?  if  they  should  be  able 
to  say  to  him,  we  made  you  President. 

"  I  understand  that  the  Spanish  mission  was  offered  to 
Wirt  before  it  was  given  to  Nelson  :  and  I  believe  that  Cheves 
is  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  Commission  to  be  organized  under 
the  late  arrangement  for  indemnifying  the  owners  of  Slaves.* 

"14  February. — I  dined  yesterday  at  Mr.  Adams's 
with  a  large  party  of  Members,  most  of  them,  I  imagine, 
unknown  to  you,  except  Mr.  Holmes  of  Maine  and  per 
haps  Mr.  Stevenson  of  Virginia.  I  mentioned  what  Jo 
seph  Bonaparte  told  me  a  few  days  ago  that  in  his  opinion 
the  reasons  for  a  French  or  rather  a  Bourbon  invasion  of 
Spain  are  stronger  than  I  thought.  I.  because  Spain  is 
a  perfectly  conquerable  country  as  he  insists — 2.  at  this 
moment  at  least  half  the  nation  is  with  the  King — 3.  the 
Bourbons  must  go  to  war  with  free  principles  or  fall  by 
them,  and  they  had  better  do  so  now  while  they  can  have  the 
aid  of  the  holy  alliance  than  hereafter  when  it  may  be  dis 
solved  or  indisposed — 4.  a  respectable  army  of  french  may 
be  found  faithful  to  the  Bourbons,  altho'  more  than  half  the 
nation  may  be  disaffected  to  them  :  and  a  Bourbon  prince  at 
the  nominal  head  of  such  an  army  might  reap  some  laurels 
of  which  the  Bourbons  are  much  in  want — 5.  on  the  7  July, 
so  Joseph  assured  me  he  knew,  the  Cortes  were  so  much 
alarmed  by  the  insurrection  of  the  troops  that  they  sent  to 
the  King  £  offered  terms,  but  he  answered  no,  he  would 
have  no  terms  but  all  he  wished. — Mr.  Adams  denied 
both  the  fact  £  the  argument.  Mr.  Poinsett  too  dis- 

*  "Since  appointed." 

121 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

credits  it.  By  the  way  he  says  that  the  Emperor  Alex 
ander  frequently  spoke  to  him  of  the  conquest  of  Turkey 
as  a  favorite  measure.  Mr.  Adams  seemed  to  think  that 
there  is  no  reason  to  apprehend  England's  attempting  to 
take  Cuba,  but  in  the  event  of  war  between  France  & 
Spain  much  more  reason  to  think  that  France  will.  Mr. 
Adams  ascribes  his  uninterrupted  health  during  the  several 
sickly  seasons  he  has  lived  in  Washington  to  swimming — 
he  walks  a  mile  to  the  Potomac  for  8  successive  mornings 
from  4  to  7  o'clock  according  as  the  tide  serves,  and  swims 
from  15  to  40  minutes — then  walks  home  again — for  the  6 
mornings  of  low  tide  he  abstains — swimming  8  days  out 
of  14.  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  is  an  excellent  system.* 
He  lives  in  the  house  on  F.  Street  in  which  Mr.  Madison 
used  to  live  and  afterwards  Cutts,  to  which  he  has  added 
several  large  rooms,  another  house  in  fact,  that  makes  it 
spacious  enough.  Every  Tuesday  Evening  during  the 
Session  Mr.  Adams  sees  company,  and  every  assembly  is 
a  dancing  one — as  indeed  all  their  large  evening  parties 
are  here.  There  was  a  large  one  at  Mr.  Calhoun's  last 
night.  There  was  one  at  Taylor's  on  Monday — and  week 
before  last  I  believe  there  was  one  every  evening.  Of 
your  kindred  there  were  last  night  Mrs.  Mason  with  her 
son  &  2  daughters,  the  2d  &  3d — Miss  Lloyd,  and  Miss 
Steele  a  very  pretty  girl.  I  had  appropriated  this  morn 
ing  to  walking  to  Georgetown  &  paying  my  respects  to 
them,  and  afterwards  perhaps  to  Kalorama  but  the  rain 
has  kept  me  in  my  chamber  till  now  two  o'clock,  which, 
by  the  bye,  is  not  long  after  breakfast  in  Washington. 
Mr.  Adams  gave  us  a  very  good  dinner  yesterday,  there 
were  4  servants  in  waiting  ;  and  as  he  gives  such  dinners 

*  "  He  is  extremely  thin." 

122 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

at  least  once  a  week,  I  believe,  during  the  session,  I  dare 
say  the  President  is  right  in  thinking  that  $6000  a  year 
does  not  pay  for  all  his  hospitality.  It  seems  to  me  that 
the  dinner  giving  system  has  increased  very  much  since  I 
first  knew  this  great  watering  place — will  you  let  me  call 
it — where  amusement  is  a  business,  a  need,  to  which 
almost  every  body  is  given  up  from  5  o'clock  till  bed 
time. — All  the  Secretaries  give  dinners  £  balls  frequently, 
I  fancy  weekly,  and  many  other  persons  who,  I  should 
think,  can  ill  afford  it.  The  court  &  bar  dine  to-day  with 
the  President.  In  my  opinion  a  Judge  should  never  dine 
out  in  term  time  except  on  Saturday  or  Sunday,  if  then. 
In  England  I  am  told  they  hardly  ever  do  :  and  I  fancy 
the  pillars  of  Westminster  hall  would  marvel  much  if  they 
could  see  the  Supreme  court  of  the  U.  S.  begin  a  day's 
session,  aye,  after  robing  £  taking  their  places,  by  re 
ceiving  from  the  Marshal  their  cards  of  invitation  and 
taking  up  their  pens  to  answer  them  before  the  list  of 
cases  is  called  for  hearing.  I  asked  Mr.  Adams  yesterday 
if  he  ever  met  the  judges  at  dinner  in  England,  he  said  he 
had  Ld.  Ellenbro'  once  &  Sr.  Wm.  Scott  often.  What  is 
your  better  experience  ?  I  should  like  to  know  and  I  wish 
you  would  be  particular  in  informing  me. 

"  Friday  Evening. — We  had  a  prodigious  shew  of  Law 
yers  at  dinner  at  the  President's,  among  them  Mrs.  Rush's 
brother  who  attends  the  Supreme  court  to  argue  a  case  in 
which  seventeen  *  millions  of  acres  of  land  are  in  contro 
versy.  Young  Pinkney  was  there,  the  Russian  Secretary, 
with  a  large  snuffbox,  the  foolish  fellow,  I  could  say,  to 
unhinge  his  nerves  &  spoil  his  voice.  They  say  he's  a 

*  ' '  Seventy — what  wd.  an  English  lawyer  say  of  an  ar 
gument  involving  more  land  than  all  England,  I  believe  ?" 
123 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

clever  young  man  tho  I  must  confess  my  first  impressions, 
in  which  I  allow  that  the  snuffbox  has  great  weight,  are 
not  favorable.  Gen.  Van  Rensselaer  was  also  there,  and 
a  Mr.  Elliott  of  Boston,  I  don't  know  whether  of  the  bar. 
Excepting  them  the  whole  company  of  nearly  thirty  were 
Judges  and  Lawyers.  We  had  two  kinds  of  very  good 
American  wine,  the  Scuppernong  of  North  Carolina,  of  a 
light  color  and  taste  like  Muscat,  and  what  is  called  Con- 
stantia  made  within  5  miles  of  Georgetown. 

' '  The  bar  had  a  meeting  to-day  at  which  Mr.  Wirt  pre 
sided  and  Messrs.  Clay,  Harper  and  Winder  were  appointed 
a  Committee  to  devise  means  of  procuring  a  Law  Library,  of 
which  the  want  is  deplorable  here,  and  also  of  obtaining  if 
practicable  an  establishment  in  which  all  the  lawyers  at 
tending  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  accommodated  with 
lodgings  together,  which  would  be  a  convenience  I  dare  say. 

' '  Saturday  Morning 75  February. — Genl.  Harper  who  sat 
next  to  me  at  dinner  yesterday  suggested  a  notable  project 
indeed  for  obviating  the  many  difficulties  supposed  to 
attend  President's  Elections,  that  the  President  before  he 
retires  should  designate  20  young  men  not  exceeding  25 
years  of  age  from  whom  he  should  select  one  to  be  Vice- 
President,  the  said  youth  to  begin  his  functions  forthwith 
as  V.  P.,  the  other  19  to  remain  in  reserve  to  take  his 
place  in  case  of  his  death,  he  to  be  V.  P.  for  20  years,  and 
thus  educated  at  45  to  become  President  without  any 
other  choice  and  to  remain  so  for  20  or  10  or  any  other 
given  number  of  years,  then,  after  in  like  manner  desig 
nating  20  other  Presidential  colts  for  training,  to  retire. 
Was  ever  such  nonsense  from  so  sensible  a  man  !  * 

*  "Was  it  not  meant  as  a  satire  ?"  [Marginal  note  by 
Mr.  Rush.] 

124 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  16  February. — I  called  yesterday  to  pay  my  respects 
to  Gov.  Lloyd  *  who  is  established  with  all  his  family  at 
O'Neale's  in  the  same  apartments  in  which  I  spent  the 
autumn  and  winter  of  14-15.  Mr.  Lloyd  has  been  very 
sick  but  is  much  better,  he  is  &  has  been  all  the  session 
invalided  with  flying  gout.  It  is  delightful  to  me  to  hear 
him  talk  politics,  so  much  tone,  openness  and  aboriginal 
principle.  He  is  a  strong  advocate  of  the  election  of 
Crawford  on  the  basis  of  the  old  democratic  party  which 
he  says  must  rally  &  do  it  by  a  caucus  here,  or  surrender 
its  ascendancy  &  combination.  He  thinks  that  Mr.  Mon 
roe  has  done  more  harm  to  that  party  than  was  ever  done 
by  any  man,  by  his  era  of  good  feelings  :  and  I  confess  I 
seconded  cordially  his  opinion  that  parties  on  principles 
are  the  only  alternative  for  parties  for  men,  parties  for 
place  and  parties  for  the  East,  the  South  &  the  West.  I 
asked  him  how  Maryland  stands,  and  if  Mr.  Adams  has 
not  the  ascendant  here.  He  said  that  his  adherents  had 
been  taking  great  pains  to  forestall  public  suffrage  and 
that  the  Yankies  at  Baltimore  where  they  have  the  news 
papers  have  made  considerable  impressions.  But  that 
they  were  disappointed  in  the  election  of  the  Governor 
and  General  Smith,  and  that  when  the  people  come  to 
understand  that  the  bulk  of  Adams's  adherents  are  fed 
eralists  he  does  not  believe  they  will  submit  to  such  lead 
ers.  He  acknowledged  however  that  many  of  the  most 
established  democrats  are  adherents  of  Adams.  I  did  not 
hear  him  say  so,  but  I  believe  that  even  your  old  &  steady 
predecessor  Judge  Duval  f  is  of  the  number. 

*  Edward  Lloyd,  ex-Governor  of  Maryland,  was  then 
United  States  Senator  from  that  State. — W.  M.  M. 

•j-  Gabriel  Duval,  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  United  States 
125 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"My  visit  to  Gov.  Lloyd  was  a  suitable  introduction  to 
dinner  at  Mr.  Crawford's  where  we  had  Judges  Johnson  & 
Duval,  Gov.  Wright,  Fenton  Mercer,  and  many  other 
members  Judges  and  I  believe  district  attorneys.  Our 
host  gave  us  one  proof  of  his  right  to  succeed  Mr.  Jefferson 
in  not  only  a  very  handsome  dinner,  which  is  common 
enough  here,  with  a  service  of  plate  &c.,  but  a  very  good 
one,  the  meats  well  selected  &  well  served,  warm  and 
well  dressed,  in  that  respect  at  least  very  superior  if  not 
in  contrast  to  the  President's  dinner  the  day  before.  I 
should  not  forget  among  other  enjoyments  comfortable 
rooms,  whereas  at  the  President's  they  were  miserably 
cold,  so  much  so  that  Mr.  Clay  said  they  should  be  better 
warmed  in  his  tenure.  From  Mercer  who  sat  on  one  side 
of  me  I  understood  that  when  in  London  he  knew  of 
Pinkney's  going  into  the  fields  to  declaim  and  attending 
the  debating  clubs  ;  and  from  Mr.  Hamilton  who  succeeds 
poor  Lowndes  I  learned  what  I  did  not  know  before  that 
he  died  a  few  days  after  getting  to  sea  and  that  they  com 
mitted  his  body  to  the  deep — a  painful  aggravation,  I 
should  suppose,  of  his  wife's  feelings.  Gov.  Wright  *  is 
rather  younger  if  anything  than  he  was  ten  years  ago, 
tho'  now  in  his  seventieth  year.  He  married  about  a 
twelvemonth  ago  a  very  fine  young  woman  I  am  told,  and 
had  a  child  born  about  nine  months  &  ten  days  after 
wards.  Stillborn,  but  that's  nothing,  said  he  to  me,  for 
I'll  soon  have  another.  I  don't  find  that  there  is  any 
falling  off  in  his  old  attachment  to  talk  of  things  not  corn- 
Supreme  Court.  Mr.  Rush  had  succeeded  him  in  1811 
as  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury. — W.  M.  M. 

*  Robert  Wright,  then  a  Representative  in  Congress 
from  Maryland.— W.  M.  M. 

126 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

monly  the  topics  of  conversation  &  to  call  them  all  by 
their  naked  names. 

"  Mr.  Holmes  of  Maine  who  comes  you  know  from  the 
most  abnebulated  [?]  East,  ultima  Thule,  has  his  wife  & 
daughter  with  him,  good  looking  &  I  believe  well  bred 
females  enough,  but  of  most  puissant  bodily  dimensions 
which  has  induced  Mr.  Lloyd  of  Boston  to  call  them 
children  of  the  mist. 

' '  The  President  told  me  the  other  day,  what  I  had 
heard  him  say  before,  that  he  never  reads  the  Newspapers. 
He  mentioned  to  me  in  1817  that  he  had  never  read  any 
thing  like  a  history  of  the  American  Revolution.  I  imagine 
he  has  the  smallest  library  of  perhaps  any  eminent  man 
in  this  country,  which  is  not,  either,  the  meridian  of  large 
private  libraries.  What  a  singular  contrast  this  makes 
between  him  &  Mr.  Madison  or  Mr.  Jefferson  or  Mr. 
Adams,  who  read  everything  and  limit  their  collections 
of  books  only  by  their  means.  Mr.  Adams  has  an  ex 
cellent  library  in  the  Department  of  State,  on  which  I 
constantly  draw,  being  so  near  it,  for  books.  I  began  last 
night  Judge  Johnson's  Life  of  Greene  which  I  got  there — 
a  work  composed  of  the  best  &  most  authentic  materials, 
but  written  in  the  hard  and  ambitious  and  vulgar,  tho* 
often  nervous  style  of  his  compositions.  I  am  well  as 
sured  that  Mr.  Rodney,*  who  is  going  to  Buenos  Ayres, 
is  not  worth  a  cent  in  the  world  except  from  15  to  20 
thousand  dollars  worth  of  books,  with  12  or  13  children  to 
boot.  I  have  eleven  children  said  Mr.  Clay  to  me — I 
have  but  eight  said  I.  Mr.  Hamilton  told  me  yesterday 
that  the  12  Judges  of  South  Carolina  have  96  children, 

*  Cassar  Augustus  Rodney  was  appointed  minister  to  the 
La  Plata  provinces  January  27,  1823. — W.  M.  M. 
'  127 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  the  12  directors  of  some  charitable  endowment  in 
Charleston  which  he  mentioned  but  I  forget  the  name  of, 
average  ten  a  piece. 

"  I  paid  a  visit  too  yesterday  to  a  family  living  at  the 
other  end  of  O'Neale's  Establishment  whose  situation  is 
another  of  the  countless  testimonials  of  the  dangers  of 
political  ambition.  Anthony  Morris,  whom  you  will  re 
member,  and  his  daughters  Mrs.  Nourse  and  Miss  Morris. 
He  who  was  once  Speaker  of  our  Penna.  Senate  and 
always  a  dignified  gentlemanlike  &  I  believe  respectable 
man  now  writes  as  a  clerk  under  his  son  in  law,  Captain 
Nourse,  who  himself  holds  some  subordinate  place  in  the 
Treasury  or  the  Commissariat.  But  they  all  attend  the 
balls  of  which  there  are  to  be  seven  or  eight  this  week  and 
I  am  bound  to  suppose  enjoy  themselves. 

"  Monday  Night  17  Feby. — A  very  pleasant  dinner  yes 
terday  with  my  friend  Poinsett  who  eats  at  the  french 

cook's  in  the *  buildings.  We  had  a  good  french 

meal,  I  imagine  the  best  wine  in  Washington,  some  of  his 
Carolina  A.  D.  and  a  sociable  party  of  young  gentlemen, 
all  batchelors  together  and  as  merry  as  crickets.  Gen. 
Van  Rensselaer,  the  patroon,  a  natural  gentleman,  amiable 
without  study,  Louis  McLane,  who  seems  to  rank  high 
here,  acting  chairman  of  the  Ways  &  Means  since  Genl. 
Smith's  translation  to  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hamilton,  Mr.  Pat 
terson,  Mr.  Cambreling,  Captain  Creighton  of  the  Navy, 
&  Mr.  Insinger  of  Holland.  So  many  good  &  memorable 
things  were  said  that  I  have  not  time  to-night  as  it  is  now 
past  my  usual  hour  of  retirement  to  make  even  extracts 
from  them.  McLane  told  me  that  Randolph  is  really  ill, 
as  he  thinks,  &  declining.  I  believe  I  have  mentioned 

*  Illegible.—  W.  M.  M. 
128 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

before  that  he  never  speaks  or  even  talks,  tho'  he  says  he 
means  to  return  to  England  in  May  as  he  considers  it 
useful  for  his  health. 

"In  the  evening  I  went  to  Mrs.  Brown's,  where  Mrs. 
Cutts  was  the  only  lady,  except  Miss  Hopkinson  who  is 
staying  there.  But  we  had  Mr.  Addington  &  Mr.  Wilmot, 
of  the  British  legation,  both  well  informed  £  well  behaved 
men,  old  Petry,  and  other  men  enough  to  make  up  a 
circle. 

"I  mentioned  the  other  day  that  Mr.  Adams  has  an 
addition  to  his  house.  I  understand  that  he  bo't  the  house 
and  built  the  addition,  which  has  become  a  very  common 
style  here,  and  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  prevailing  pro 
pensity  to  entertainment  &  gaiety.  Mr.  Brown's  house  is 
so,  and  if  I  am  not  mistaken  some  others  ;  like  that  which 
Mr.  Monroe  used  to  live  in,  now  occupied  by  Mr.  Can 
ning — the  additional  apartments  are  literally  appropriated 
to  dinners  &  dances.  The  Russian  is  in  Decatur's  fine 
house.  The  french  in  what  was  Tench  Ringgold's,  where 
Poletica  lived. 

"To-day  I  dined  at  Coyle's  on  the  hill  with  Hemphill* 
&  his  mess.  Clay,  Cheves  &  I  were  guests,  Messrs. 
Holmes,  Winnf  &  Rankin  of  Mississippi,  Mr.  Parrott  of 
N.  Hampshire,  Mr.  Baylies  of  Massachusetts  and  Col.  & 
Mrs.  Wool  were,  I  believe,  at  home.  We  had  a  very 
agreeable  session  to  which  Clay  mainly  contributed.  I 
should  add  that  his  coadjutor  in  the  dispute  between  Ken 
tucky  &  Virginia  Mr.  Rowan  was  there.  Clay  says  that 
Canning  told  him  the  day  before  yesterday,  as  I  also 

*  Joseph  Hemphill,  Representative  in  Congress  from 
Pennsylvania. — W.  M.  M. 

f  This  name  is  hardly  legible. — W.  M.  M. 
9  I29 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

heard  Mr.  Adams  state  publickly,  that  England  has  no 
views  on  Cuba.  Clay  told  him  distinctly  that  we  would 
fight  for  it  should  they  attempt  the  possession,  which  sen 
timent  I  find  more  general  than  I  supposed.  Mr.  Baylies 
of  Massachusetts  a  federalist  is  for  it  as  he  said  this  after 
noon.  The  idea  given  out  is  that  any  English  force  going 
there  is  to  protect  it  from  the  French  who  might  try  to 
take  it,  as  I  heard  Mr.  Adams  say,  in  the  event  of  war 
between  France  &  Spain. 

"There  were  a  good  many  slurs  yesterday  at  the  Presi 
dent's  style  of  living  which  is  said  to  be  shabby.  Mrs. 
Wilson  this  eve'g  entertained  me  with  a  budget  of  specifi 
cations  to  this  impeachment. 

"  19  Febry. — I  disposed  of  two  of  my  causes  yesterday 
and  shall  return  home  to-morrow  or  next  day,  as  a  third 
is  fixed  for  to-day.  A  characteristic  incident  occurred  to 
me  in  court  yesterday.  I  enquired  of  that  disobliging, 
lazy  rapacious  fellow  the  clerk  for  the  rules,  which,  after 
some  of  his  usual  demurs  he  at  length  produced  in  a 
manuscript  book  every  word  of  it  in  your  handwriting, 
with  your  name  written  on  the  cover  as  a  claim  of  owner 
ship  thus  disregarded  by  this  personage  who  has  no  copy 
of  his  own  of  the  rules  of  his  own  court.  I  have  bro't  it 
home  to  my  lodgings  and  have  it  now  on  the  table. 

"  Dined  yesterday  with  Mr.  Canning  with  Mr.  Speaker 
Barbour  who  is  neither  a  diner  out  nor  a  Speaker  of  the 
first  lustre,  and,  from  all  I  hear,  will  be  in  danger  next 
winter  of  descending  to  the  floor  again,  Messrs.  Dickerson 
and  Elliot  of  the  Senate,  Van  Rensselaer,  McLane,  Condict 
of  the  H.  of  R.,  Cheves,  Ogden,  Blake  of  Boston,  Captain 
Read  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Ellisen,  Baron  Maltitz,  Messrs. 
Addington,  Wilmot  &  Parish,  who  are  of  Mr.  Canning's 
family,  and  perhaps  some  others  whom  I  don't  remember. 
130 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Great  display  of  servants  in  white  &  purple  liveries,  of 
whom  there  were  five,  and  two -or  three  others  not  in 
livery,  complete  service  of  plate,  considerable  variety  of 
wines  &c.  But  I  do  not  think  the  dinner  was  as  good  nor 
the  entertainment  as  agreeable  as  Poletica's,  where  how 
ever  I  felt  more  at  home  which  maybe  made  the  differ 
ence. 

"A  bill  to  settle  the  Vicepresident's  *  accounts  equitably 
as  you  know  the  phrase  is,  in  other  words  pretty  much  on 
his  own  terms,  passed  the  H.  of  R.  the  day  before  yester 
day  in  the  most  flattering  manner,  unanimously,  and  thro' 
3  readings  the  same  day.  There  is  no  doubt  of  its  passage 
thro'  Senate.  He  retired  yesterday  as  is  the  custom  you 
know  to  let  them  choose  a  President  protempore  which 
will  be  done  to-day,  and  goes  home  with  the  universal 
acknowledgement  that  his  conduct  this  Session  has  been 
unexceptionable.  I  suppose  you  have  heard  that  here 
tofore  it  has  not  been  so — he  drank  to  excess,  and  was  at 
times  incapable  of  business.  I  rejoice  at  his  reestablish- 
ment  in  character  and  ease  as  certainly  there  is  no  man  to 
whom  the  late  war  is  more  indebted  for  its  support.  Mr. 
McLane  told  me  at  Poinsett's  on  Sunday  that  he  believes 
Randolph  drinks  to  excess, f  either  does  or  has,  I  forget 
which  he  said,  and  that  it  is  the  cause  of  his  present  sick 
ness  £  despondency. 

"  I  did  not  attend  at  Mr.  Adams'  last  evening  nor  shall 
I  Mr.  Monroe's  to-night  tho'  the  last  drawing  room  this 
season — being  surfeited,  as  I  soon  become  of  such  suits. 
They  are  almost  innumerable  here,  and,  I  believe,  almost  in- 

*  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  of  New  York.— W.  M.  M. 
f  ' '  Somebody,  I  forget  who,  has  since  assured  me  it  is 
not  so." 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

dispensable,  certainly  very  useful,  in  assembling  the  inhabi 
tants  stationary  and  temporary  of  this  extensive  residence. 

"20  February. — At  dinner  yesterday  at  Commodore 
Chauncey's  we  had  the  Vice  President,  the  Sec.  of  the 
Navy,  Messrs.  Vandyke  &  Wm.  King  of  the  Senate, 
Messrs.  Morgan  and  Kirkland  of  N.  York  of  the  H.  of 
R.,  Genl.  Harper,  Mr.  Webster,  Count  de  Menou,  Mr.  de 
Bresson,  Mr.  Petry,  Mr.  Ellisen  &  Baron  Maltitz — and  a 
pleasant  entertainment.  The  Vice  P.  is  a  very  agreeable 
man,  very  communicative,  and  amiable  in  his  intercourse, 
and  now,  I  suppose,  in  fine  spirits — I  fancy  his  friends 
have  not  quite  abandoned  his  claims  to  the  presidency. 
They  were  very  promising  at  one  time,  but  very  slight  at 
this  time.  I  understand  too  that  some  effort  will  perhaps 
be  made  for  Mr.  Thompson,  but  it  cannot  possibly  suc 
ceed.  He  is  a  clever  man,  but  rather  too  much  of  the 
chief  Justice,  precise  &  punctilious.  They  were  talking 
yesterday  of  the  monstrous  extravagance  of  Congress  in 
calling  for  Executive  reports  &  printing  them.  Mr. 
Thompson  instanced  one  of  last  Session  by  Mr.  Holmes 
of  Maine,  which,  I  think  he  said,  employed  several  clerks 
the  whole  summer  and  was  not  completed — the  only 
object  of  it  being  to  ascertain  where  the  public  vessels  are 
built  cheapest,  east,  middle,  or  south.  Philadelphia  and 
Humphries  bear  the  bell.  Gales  &  Seaton's  reelection  as 
public  printers  is  to  be  opposed  by  a  Mr.  Way  with  whom 
it  is  said  McKenney  is  in  secret  association.  It  is  supposed 
that  the  friends  of  Adams  &  Calhoun  will  unite  for  Way 
against  the  friends  of  Crawford  voting  for  Gales  £  Seaton. 

"Mr.  Lowrie,  I  hear,  goes  to  Harrisburg  next  week  to 

be  present  when  the  democratic  convention  meets  on  the 

4  March  to  nominate  for  Governor.     The  candidates  are 

Bryan,  Shulze,  Ingham,  the  State  Treasurer,  whose  name 

132 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

I  forget,  Findlay,  Darlington,  Lacock  and  may  be  others. 
It  seems  to  be  understood  that  the  question  will  be  between 
Bryan  and  Shulze,  and  that  Bryan  will  most  likely  be  the 
man.  Philadelphia  is  represented  by  delegates  who  are 
adherents  of  Ingham,  but  he  has  no  chance.  Geo.  Dallas, 
who  is  one  of  them  is  now  here  and  means  to  go  hence  to 
Harrisburg. 

"  Clay  has  written  a  letter  to  Peter  B.  Riter  which  is  to 
be  published  by  him  in  the  western  parts  of  New  York  to 
vindicate  himself  from  what  is  tho't  to  be  a  want  of  spirit 
or  rather  explicitness  in  his  answer  to  Adams  concerning 
the  Mississippi  at  Ghent.  The  western  people  think  that 
he  ought  to  explain  himself  on  that  subject  more  decisively 
for  which  purpose  this  letter  is  to  appear.  It  has  been 
shewn  about  here  to  several  of  his  friends. 

"Mr.  Galliard  was  yesterday  elected  protempore  presi 
dent  of  the  Senate  by  a  large  majority.  Indeed  there  was 
no  real  opposition  to  him.  His  health  is  miserable.  Con 
gress  is  a  bad  place  for  Health.  They  sit  all  day  in  heated 
apartments  without  exercise  or  food  and  at  evening  dine 
for  the  most  part  inordinately.  This  routine  to  persons 
accustomed  at  home  to  early  and  plain  meals  and  a  suffi 
ciency  of  exercise  must  be  pernicious.  I  think  it  at  least 
tended  to  the  death  of  Lowndes  :  and  I  know  that  Dr. 
Physick  is  of  that  opinion. 

"  The  first  cards  I  have  seen  in  Washington  this  winter 
were  last  night  at  Chauncey's  when  I  won  a  day's  pay 
from  Mr.  Morgan  at  whist. 

"The  weather  continues  cold  &  disagreeable.  I  met 
old  Col.  Forrest  *  yesterday  who  spoke  of  its  breaking  up 

*  Colonel  Thomas  Forrest,  Representative  in  Congress 
from  Pennsylvania.      He  had  served  with  credit  in  the 
'33 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

on  the  23rd  with  as  much  confidence  as  he  would  of  any 
certain  event — he  has  entire  faith  in  the  goose  bone,  and 
said  long  ago  that  the  weather  wd.  be  very  severe  from  the 
5th  of  this  month  to  the  23rd.  Thus  far  exactly  so.  I 
find  I  did  the  President's  learning  or  rather  his  library  in 
justice  :  he  told  me  this  morning  that  he  has  here  and  at 
Albemarle  together  an  excellent  one  of  three  thousand 
volumes.  Still  I  take  him  to  have  never  been  a  reading 
man. 

"I  asked  Judge  Duval  to-day  what  they  were  doing 
in  Maryland  about  a  President.  He  said  doing  nothing, 
that  it  is  quite  too  soon  that  Genl.  Smith,  Gov.  Lloyd, 
Gov.  Wright  and  Genl.  Read  had  declared  their  prefer 
ence  for  Crawford,  Chancellor  Johnson  his  for  Adams, 
and  Dr.  Kent  his  for  Calhoun  :  but  that  the  people 
generally  had  not  turned  their  attention  to  the  subject 
at  all. 

"  Gov.  King  of  Maine,  one  of  the  commissioners  under 
the  Spanish  treaty,  lately  arrived  here  who  is  a  thorough 
going  Crawfordite,  reports,  I  hear,  that  nearly  all  the 
leading  democrats  of  New  England  are  for  him,  that  the 
late  movements  in  Maine  &  Massachusetts  were  mostly 
federal.  The  old  democratic  papers  in  Connecticut  have 
come  out  against  Adams  &  for  Crawford,  and  Gov.  King 
has  been  dealing  in  transitu  with  his  nephews  at  New 
York  where  the  American  which  they  are  concerned  in, 
has  indicated  latterly  predilections  for  Adams,  &  supposes 
that  they  will  change  their  tone.  Mr.  Brown  told  me  this 
morning  that  Louisiana  will  nominate  Clay  which  will 
induce  his  nomination  by  all  the  South  &  West.  Geo. 

Revolution,  was  a  Quaker,  and  apparently  an  eccentric 
character. — W.  M.  M. 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Dallas  says  that  Crawford  is  hors  de  combat  &  that  Cal- 
houn's  prospects  brighten  daily.  Wm.  King  told  me 
yesterday  that  he  and  his  colleague  Kelly  from  Alabama 
were  elected  in  direct  opposition  to  Crawford,  that  being 
the  turning  point.  He  told  me  also  that  he  had  a  letter 
from  N.  Carolina  stating  that  Crawford  is  losing  ground 
there  and  that  he  would  be  beat  notwithstanding  all 
Macon's  exertions  in  his  behalf.  Gov.  Pickens  of  Ala 
bama  is  decidedly  hostile  to  him.  You  must  recollect 
Pickens  in  Congress  from  N.  Carolina  when  I  was  in. 
Gov.  Pleasants  of  Virginia,  Gov.  Yates  of  N.  York  and 
Gov.  Parris  of  Maine  are  supposed  to  be  decidedly  for 
Crawford,  who  is  said  moreover  to  have  Mr.  Jefferson  at 
the  head  of  his  adherents.  Mr.  Monroe  is  of  course 
neutral.  But  I  believe  there  is  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Calhoun 
has  had  more  influence  with  him  than  any  other  member 
of  his  cabinet.  I  may  add  to  the  Crawfordite  Governors 
our  friend  Edward  Coles  *  who  has  lately  appeared,  I 
perceive,  in  the  Newspapers  in  a  letter  not  merely  de 
clining  or  renouncing,  but  absolutely  repudiating  the  title 
of  Excellency. 

"  Thursday  Even  g  20  Feby. — The  dinner  to-day  at 
Mr.  Thompson's  surprised  me,  I  confess,  more  than  any 
thing  of  that  sort,  of  which  as  I  have  already  said  there 
are  so  many,  in  Washington.  Of  the  President's  display 
I  think  I  have  expressed  my  dislike  to  you  several  years 
ago  :  and  now  it  seems  to  be  menaced  with  degeneracy. 
Of  Mr.  Adams's  half  french  dinners,  and  of  Mr.  Craw 
ford's  whole  french  dinners  I  can  form  a  reconciling  notion 
because  the  plateaux  and  the  plate  &  so  forth  are  the 
natural  fruits  of  former  outfits  &  European  acquirements. 

*  Then  Governor  of  Illinois.— W.  M.  M. 
135 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

But  we  had  a  very  elegant  entertainment  to-day,  with  a 
showy  plateau,  some  sprinkling  at  least  of  plate,  some 
varieties  of  wines,  and  altogether  a  costly  and  handsome 
parade  dinner  for  twenty  or  thirty  persons,  most  of  them 
in  full  dress  too,  from  a  plain,  rather  puritanical  &  poor 
family,  who,  I  dare  swear,  till  transplanted  from  Albany 
to  the  seat  of  government,  never  saw  or  dreamt  of  such 
things.  Such  are  the  influences  of  the  capital,  and  all  this 
achieved  on  six  thousand  dollars  a  year,  with  no  outfit  or 
contingencies,  and  in  jeopardy  every  session  moreover  of 
reduction  to  five  thousand  may  be  four  may  be  less  a  year. 
I  ought  to  add  that  I  do  not  marvel  at  it  in  any  spirit  of 
censure  or  detraction.  They  are  very  amiable,  respectable 
&  estimable  people.  But,  as  I  am  told,  with  no  other 
means  than  the  salary  aforementioned,  and  all  my  wonder 
is  like  Peter  Pindar's  at  the  apple  in  the  dumpling  how  the 
devil  it  comes  about :  and  I  refer  it  entirely  to  capital  in 
fluence.  For  instance,  by  way  of  Episode — or  rather  to 
turn  a  moment  from  Mr.  Thompson's  Episode  to  the  social 
Epic  of  Washington — and  to  take  the  time  present  as 
instar  omnium,  as  it  is,  as  far  as  some  six  weeks  go — there 
was  a  ball  at  Mrs.  Brown's  on  Monday  night,  besides  her 
overture  on  Sunday  Evening,  a  ball  at  Mr.  Adams'  on 
Tuesday,  the  Drawing  Room  Wednesday,  Col.  Hender 
son's  ball  at  the  Navy  Yard  to-night,  Mr.  Crawford's  ball 
to-morrow  night,  the  birth  night  ball  on  Saturday  night, 
Mr.  Wirt's  ball  on  Monday,  Mr.  Adams'  ball  again,  (& 
always  during  the  session)  on  Tuesday,  Mr.  Thompson's 
ball  on  Wednesday,  Mr.  Chauncey's  ball  on  Thursday, 
Mr.  Canning's  ball  on  friday — and  further,  as  I  go  home 
to-morrow,  my  ken  does  not  extend.  All  this  while  Messrs. 
Mcllvaine  and  his  fellow  clergymen  are  denouncing 
dancing  as  a  sin  &  anathematising  all  who  perpetrate 
136 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

it.  Even  poor  General  Brown,*  I  see,  is  at  the  head  of 
the  Managers  for  Saturday  night — Poor  fellow — not  quite 
a  driveller  &  a  shew,  but  sadly  changed  from  the  stout, 
ablebodied,  strenuous  dux  you  left  him — he  is  now  a  pale- 
faced  cripple,  the  consequence  of  a  paralytic  stroke  of 
which  he  thinks  the  seeds  were  sown  in  his  lake  cam 
paigns.  To  return  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  the  hon 
orable  Mr.  Radamanthus,  as  I  have  heard  him  called,  for 
there  remains  a  good  deal  of  the  inflexible  chief  justice 
about  him  personally  notwithstanding  the  general  meta 
morphosis  of  his  household  &  habits  (as  I  presume,  for  I 
don't  know  it  as  a  fact)  by  transplantation  to  this  hotbed 
of  hospitality.  We  had  the  chief  Justice  of  the  U.  S.  on 
one  seat  of  honor  and  the  Mexican  minister  or  Secretary 
of  Legation,  I  did  not  ascertain  which,  on  another,  Judges 
Johnson  &  Story,  fie  on  them  for  dining  out  so  continually, 
tho'  how  can  they  help  it  under  this  raging  star,  Commo 
dore  Bainbridge,  Captains  Read  &  Finch  of  the  Navy  &  a 
Lieutenant  I  don't  know,  Captain  Ridgely  of  the  Navy  & 
his  wife  Miss  Livingston,  who  was  born  when  I  was  in 
Paris  &  is  now  not  only  a  matron  but  taller  than  I  am, 
which  proves  to  me  by  memento  that  I  am  little  and  at 
least  growing  old,  her  sister  Maria  whom  you  remember 
here  the  winter  of  '14-' 15,  with  her  husband  the  hand 
some  John  Tillotson.  By  the  way  how  inconsiderable 
mere  good  education  good  appearance  good  manners  good 
circumstances  and  good  conduct  are  in  this  ambitious 
country.  I  wd.  rather  one  of  my  sons  should  be  an  emi 
nent  taylor  or  a  distinguished  innkeeper.  There's  Kelly 
of  the  Senate  of  the  U.  S.  who  was  one  of  the  first  strange 

*  General   Jacob   Brown,   of  Pennsylvania,    the  distin 
guished  general  of  the  war  of  1812. — W.  M.  M. 
137 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

sights  I  saw  when  I  took  my  seat  in  1813.  He  contested 
the  place  of  Harris  of  Tennessee,  and  made  us  an  excel 
lent  speech  at  the  bar  of  the  house,  fluent,  selfpossessed, 
able  and  powerful,  in  a  sort  of  shag  coat,  with  a  red  some 
thing  by  way  of  handkerchief  or  cravat  on  his  neck,  and 
all  the  rest  of  his  equipment  of  similar  character,  with  a 
pair  of  saddlebags  on  his  arm  from  which  he  drew  forth 
his  notes  &  vouchers.  To  resume  once  more,  we  had 
Harry  Waddell  of  whose  name  Judge  Johnson  made  a  bad 
use  very  often  by  placing  the  final  /  before  the  intermedi 
ate  e,  a  young  Mexican,  educated  in  England,  speaking 
English  very  well,  and  looking  like  the  rest  of  us,  while 
his  principal  looked  exactly  as  if  his  name  was  Iturbide — 
and  many  more  of  both  sexes  whom  I  need  not  enumerate 
or  denominate,  at  Mr.  Thompson's  dinner.  Adieu — here 
ends  my  Diary." 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  determination  in  1815  to  remain 
at  the  bar  for  some  fifteen  years  was  probably 
based  upon  a  very  definite  plan  of  being  able  in 
his  later  years  to  have  a  little  otium  cum  dignitate 
and  then  to  choose  such  interest  as  he  preferred  to 
occupy  him.  And,  indeed,  at  about  the  same  time 
he  strongly  advised  that  a  younger  friend  who  was 
anxious  to  go  to  Europe  on  a  mission  should  not 
do  so,  for  "  the  alternatives  were  a  few  years  of 
rather  empty  enjoyment  at  this  end  of  life  with  a 
great  many  of  penance,  privation,  and  the  grind 
stone  at  the  other,  or  a  few  years'  tugging  now, 
with  comfort,  consequence,  and  recreation,  if  he 
wishes,  afterwards." 

138 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

His  industry  all  through  his  life  was  very  great. 
In  October,  1814,  he  wrote  from  Washington, — 

"I  have  taken  sanctuary  in  study,  and  have  almost  de 
voured  already  as  many  volumes  as  I  could  lay  my  hands 
on  of  a  broken  set  of  Robinson's  Reports  and  Hall's  Law 
Journal,  which,  in  direct  contradiction  to  Judge  Brecken- 
ridge's  advice  in  his  Miscellanies,  I  am  reading  'flush 
through'  for  want  of  something  better." 

At  about  the  same  time  he  read  Blackstone 
through  carefully,  and  in  preparing  for  his  speech 
on  the  Loan  bill  he  had,  on  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Duponceau,  read  an  anonymous  book  published 
at  Amsterdam  in  1 780,  "  La  Liberte  de  la  Naviga 
tion  et  du  Commerce  des  Nations  neutres  pendant 
la  Guerre,  consideree  selon  le  Droit  des  Gens  uni- 
versel,  celui  de  1'Europe  et  les  Traites."  Of  this 
lie  sent  a  complete  translation  28  to  Mr.  Madison  in 
July,  1814,  as  he  did  also  of  a  book,  "  Des  Progres 
de  la  Puissance  Russe,"  which  had  been  loaned 
him  by  M.  Serrurier,  and  which  touched  in  part 
upon  the  same  subject.  At  about  the  same  time 
he  was  reading  Rulhiere's  "  Poland,"  "  Prince  Eu 
gene's  Memoirs,"  and  Porter's  "  Narrative  of  the 
Campaign  in  Russia  in  1812,"  of  which  latter  he 
noted  that  "  it  transcends  Munchausen."  At  the 
same  time  that  he  was  consuming  all  these  works 
he  was  attending  closely  to  Congressional  duties. 
At  a  much  later  period  he  wrote  as  follows  of  the 
origin  of  his  <uLaw  of  Foreign  Missions:" 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"Several  years  ago,  by  way  of  evening  employment  in 
the  country,  I  translated  Bynkershoek's  twenty-four  books 
de  Foro  Legatorum,  assisted  by  Barbeyrac's  paraphrase, 
in  turning  very  unclassical  and  difficult  modern  Latin  into 
English.  Finding  my  work  when  done  but  an  imperfect 
view  of  the  subject,  and  becoming  pleased  with  it,  I  con 
sulted  Wicquefort,  Bielfeld,  Vattel,  Grotius,  Merlin,  Mar 
ten,  and  whatever  other  writers  upon  it  I  could  lay  my 
hands  on." 

All  his  life  through  he  was  a  great  reader  and 
rarely  without  books  :  on  one  occasion,  on  a  trip 
to  Harrisburg,  he  wrote  that  Tacitus  and  Horace 
were  his  principal  companions,  and  on  another 
occasion  that  he  was  reading  Bulwer's  latest  novel 
and  "  hungering  for  the  Pickwick  papers." 
During  at  least  some  of  his  earlier  years  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  noting  in  a  commonplace-book 
historical  and  other  facts  of  interest  and  quotations 
of  a  striking  character,  some  of  which  are  to  be 
found  used  very  aptly  in  his  Congressional  life 
years  afterwards. 

Soon  also  he  had  another  line  of  work  in  being 
called  upon  to  make  addresses  and  orations.  On 
October  18,  1823,  he  delivered  the  annual  oration 
before  the  American  Philosophical  Society  on  the 
"  Influence  of  America  on  the  Mind,"  and  in  Oc 
tober  of  the  next  year  he  read  before  the  same 
society,  at  the  meeting  attended  by  General  La 
Fayette,  a  "  Communication  on  the  Improvement 
140 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  Government."  The  first  named  was  reprinted 
in  London  by  one  R.  Flower,  and  a  copy  of  the 
reprint  sent  the  author,  and  it  was  also  very  favor 
ably  reviewed  by  Count  Lanjuinais  in  the  Revue 
Encyclopedique,\.Q  say  nothing  of  notices  in  America. 
And  a  later  effort  of  his,  an  address  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  1832,  delivered  before  the  Philadelphia 
Society  for  celebrating  the  Anniversary  of  our 
Independence  without  Distinction  of  Party,  also 
attracted  attention  abroad,  and  was  quoted  by 
Bulwer  in  his  novel  "  Rienzi."  ^  The  address  on 
the  "  Influence  of  America  on  the  Mind,"  as  well 
as  all  others  of  the  author  where  the  subject  had 
any  proper  place,  was  full  of  the  great  lesson  which 
he  was  one  of  the  very  first  to  endeavor  to  teach 
his  countrymen,  of  American  pride  and  self-re 
spect.  There  was  no  undue  laudation,  nor  any 
touch  of  the  spread-eagle,  but  a  full  appreciation  of 
those  national  tendencies  and  capacities  which  his 
countrymen  were  generally  so  slow  to  defend  and 
which  the  foreign  world  almost  absolutely  failed 
to  see.  The  address  before  La  Fayette  touched  in 
part  upon  the  same  subject,  and,  delivered  as  it  was 
upon  an  inspiring  occasion,  was  full  of  the  feeling 
which  its  circumstances  caused.  In  describing  the 
delight  of  the  Americans  in  receiving  La  Fayette, 
he  said, — 

"  No  spectacle  is  either  physically  or  morally  comparable 
in  magnificence  to  that  of  a  rejoicing  nation.     No  govern- 
141 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ment  can  rouse  a  people  like  their  own  awakening.  No 
treasury  can  afford  the  means,  no  ordinance  can  produce 
the  effects  of  the  gratuitous  ostentation  of  an  unanimous 
people.  America  does  not  forget  the  romantic  forth 
coming  of  the  most  generous  consistent  and  heroic  of 
the  knights  of  the  old  world  to  the  rescue  of  the  new. 
She  has  always  dwelt  delighted  on  the  constancy  of  the 
nobleman  who  could  renounce  titles  and  wealth,  for  more 
historical  and  philanthropic  honors  ;  the  commander  re 
nouncing  power,  who  never  shed  a  drop  of  blood  for  con 
quest  or  vain  glory.  She  has  often  trembled,  but  never 
blushed,  for  her  oriental  champion,  when  tried  by  the 
alternate  caresses  and  rage  of  the  most  terrific  mobs,  and 
imposing  monarchs.  She  knows  that  his  hospitable  man 
sion  was  the  shrine  at  which  her  citizens  in  France  conse 
crated  their  faith  in  independence. 


"  Thither  did  all  her  valiant  youth  resort, 
And  from  his  memory  inflame  their  breasts 
To  matchless  valour,  and  adventures  high. 


"  Invited  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  first  eminence,  the 
very  idolatry  of  the  welcome  abounds  with  redeeming 
characteristics  of  self  government.  .  .  .  The  sons  of  sires 
whom  he  led  to  battle  in  calamitous  resistance  to  a  trifling 
tax  are  ready  to  lavish  their  last  cent  to  make  him  wel 
come.  An  industrious  people,  who  earn  their  daily  bread 
by  labour,  suspend  all  occupation  but  rejoicing  with  him. 
His  voluntary  escort  consists  of  larger  bodies  of  well 
equipped  troops  than  could  be  raised  throughout  the  revo 
lution.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  enthusiasts,  of  all  sexes, 
ages  and  conditions,  are  daily  and  nightly  thronged  to 
gether  in  his  train,  without  disorder,  confusion,  or  crime. 
142 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Learned  and  pious  societies,  the  female  sex,  all  ages,  the 
church,  the  professions,  the  various  trades,  the  swarms  of 
innumerable  schools,  city  corporations,  the  magistrates  of 
four  and  twenty  sovereign  states,  and  of  the  adult  empire 
of  their  Union — all  business  laid  aside — the  courts  of 
justice  shut — party,  and  avarice,  and  every  other  passion 
hushed — from  every  private  dwelling  and  public  edifice, 
pour  out  to  swell  the  perfectly  placid  and  regulated  cur 
rent  that  bears  upon  its  bosom — Not  a  chieftain  reeking 
from  reckless  victory,  sparkling  with  the  trophies  of  ruffian 
war,  drenched  with  tears  of  blood,  incensed  by  vulgar 
adulation — No  :  But  a  simple  individual,  without  authority, 
power,  patronage,  or  recent  exploit,  venerable  with  age, 
mellowed  by  misfortunes — who  has  nothing  but  his  blessing 
to  give  in  return,  whose  merits  are  remote  recollections, 
whose  magic  is  disinterestedness, — proved  by  a  long  life  of 
temperate  consistency,  to  be  worthy  of  this  homage  in  the 
commemoration  of  Independence.  The  man  of  whom  no 
instance  is  known  of  selfishness  or  dangerous  abuse — 
whose  sword  itself  was  the  gift  of  the  founder  of  the  temple 
of  concord — with  such  a  man,  as  the  representative  of 
their  persecuted  but  triumphant  cause,  a  sedate  and  think 
ing  people  give  vent  to  their  enthusiasm.  They  raise  him 
before  the  world  as  its  image,  and  bear  him  through  illu 
minated  cities  and  widely  cultivated  regions,  all  redolent 
with  festivity  and  every  device  of  hospitality  and  enter 
tainment,  where,  when  their  independence  was  declared, 
there  was  little  else  than  wilderness  and  war." 


On  October  24,  1825,  he  delivered  the  address 
before  the  Society  for  the  Commemoration  of  the 
Landing  of  William  Penn.  On  this  occasion  the 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

meeting  was  held  at  the  University,  and  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  was  present.  And  on  July 
4,  1832,  he  delivered  the  already  mentioned  oration 
before  the  Philadelphia  Association  for  celebrating 
the  Fourth  of  July  without  Distinction  of  Party,  in 
which,  after  enlarging  on  our  advantages,  he  went 
at  some  length  into  the  evils  of  our  public  press, 
and  hinted  at  its  venality,  factiousness,  and  ten 
dency  to  pander  to  the  powerful,  ending  with  some 
very  strong  reflections  against  the  disunion  views 
then  prevalent  in  the  South. 

But  what  seems  to  me  in  some  respects  his  most 
remarkable  oration,  and  a  striking  instance  of  his 
power  of  description,  is  a  lecture30  delivered  in 
1839  at  the  Musical  Fund  Hall  before  the  Athe 
nian  Institute.  This  was  a  society  of  young  men 
for  self-improvement,  and  the  subject  of  his  lecture 
was  "  Europe  long  ago."  I  have  seen  one  per 
son  who  heard  this  address  and  still  has  vividly 
fixed  in  his  mind  some  portions  of  it.  He  says  a 
great  deal  of  it  was  spoken  off-hand  and  with  very 
slight  notes.  Mr.  Ingersoll  began  by  saying  that 
his  remarks  would  be  desultory,  familiar,  and  un 
pretending,  and  then  gave  a  remarkably  vivid 
picture  of  some  sights  and  events  which  had  im 
pressed  him  in  England  and  in  various  Continental 
countries.  He  spoke  as  follows  of  the  remarkable 
scenes  he  saw  in  Paris,  and  ended — possibly  to 
prevent  any  appearance  of  undue  admiration  of 

144 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

French  methods — by  describing  his  shock  at  an 
arrest  he  witnessed  there  : 


"To  describe  France  is  to  represent  Paris,  and  to  do 
that  in  his  time  is  to  delineate  Bonaparte.  France,  said 
Chateaubriand,  is  a  soldier,  not  a  Napoleon  of  peace,  as 
the  certainly  very  remarkable  King  of  the  French  was 
called  by  Talleyrand  ;  but  the  little  corporal  of  the  violet 
flower  and  three-colored  cockade,  at  whose  name  every 
crowned  head  trembled  for  twenty  years  of  royal  panic, 
while  every  veteran's  heart  leaped  for  joy,  and  every  con 
script,  even  though  lamenting  home,  felt  that  Bonaparte 
would  lead  him  to  perform  the  prodigies  and  share  the 
glories  of  the  great  nation.  To  see  him  with  his  little 
cocked  hat,  gray  surtout,  and  plain-hilted  sword,  on  a 
beautiful  Persian  or  Spanish  horse,  full  of  fire  and  move 
ment,  but  perfectly  broke  and  gentle,  like  his  master 
collected  and  delighting  in  tumult  and  commotion,  richly 
though  heavily  caparisoned,  as  striking  as  David's  picture 
of  him  crossing  the  Alps  ;  a  small,  pallid,  almost  beardless 
midshipman-looking  young  man,  with  a  languid  Italian 
countenance,  light  restless  eyes,  full  shoulders,  finely 
turned  limbs,  very  small  hands  and  feet,  handsome  but 
not  commanding  appearance,  a  bad  though  bold  rider,  (as 
if  he  had  never  been  taught  that  gentlemanly  accomplish 
ment — the  elegant  Charles  the  Tenth  was  probably  a  much 
more  graceful  horseman,  and  rode  a  review  better,)  en 
vironed  by  cohorts  of  gorgeous  officers  as  resplendent  as 
he  was  plain,  hardly  one  of  them  thirty  years  old,  yet  all 
veterans  and  many  wounded  ;  Beauharnois,  a  well-favored 
graceful  youth,  at  the  head  of  his  huzzars,  and  Murat  in 
the  flower  of  fantastic  manhood,  king  by  right  of  dashing 

JO  145 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

deeds  and  dress,  before  he  was  enthroned  of  modern 
chivalry,  exquisite  coxcomb  in  equipments,  glittering  with 
lace,  feathers,  gold,  and  military  finery,  profusely  bearded 
before  that  mode  became  vulgar,  perched  on  the  most 
extraordinary  charger  that  equestrian  luxury  could  procure, 
his  scarlet  mane  flowing  in  long  glossy  ringlets  over  broad 
parti-colored  shoulders,  his  forelock  parted  in  thick  curls 
about  odd  eyes  sparkling  with  fire,  an  animal  altogether 
of  most  curious  figure  and  action,  as  unlike  the  quiet  sim 
plicity  of  an  English  blood  horse  as  Murat  to  a  plain- 
dressed  English  gentleman  ; — together  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  indescribable  particulars  of  the  grand  monthly 
parade  in  front  of  the  Tuileries  and  Louvre,  palaces  of  the 
Bourbons,  close  by  the  ruins  caused  by  the  infernal  ma 
chine  ; — was  a  memorable  scene  to  fascinate  young  fancies 
with  vivid  and  overwhelming  recollections.  There  was  an 
exultation  about  Bonaparte's  military  spectacles,  at  that 
day,  when  the  campaigns  of  Italy,  of  Egypt  and  of  Marengo 
were  casting  forward  the  shadows  of  the  coming  events  of 
Austerlitz,  Moscow,  and  Waterloo — a  revolutionary  rush 
of  thought  which  flashed  over  the  senses  beyond  the  power 
of  adequate  description.  When  he  reined  up  his  horse  to 
call  a  private  from  the  ranks  of  a  distinguished  regiment, 
and  chat  with  him  before  the  army,  the  metropolis  of 
Europe  and  of  the  world,  the  public  communion  of  such 
comrades  was  an  ecstasy  that  thrilled  through  France. 
Then  seated  with  the  reins  loose  on  the  horse's  neck  in 
front  of  the  palace,  in  the  utmost  abandon  of  position, 
while  the  troops,  with  their  exciting  music,  and  the  still 
greater  stimulation  of  their  tattered  colors,  filed  before 
him,  his  amiable  face  beaming  with  a  popular  smile  which 
seemed  to  grant  every  petition,  as,  holding  by  his  stirrup, 
women,  children  and  old  men  handed  their  memorials, 
146 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

which  he  passed  to  aids-de-camp, — it  was  the  culmination 
of  the  sun  of  martial  glory.   .   .   . 

"  Returning  from  France  to  England,  I  felt  that  blessed 
assurance  of  personal  safety  which  no  American  can  appre 
ciate  till  he  puts  himself  into  countries  of  police.  One  day 
in  Paris,  at  the  restaurateur's  where  I  usually  dined,  I  saw 
an  arrest,  whether  for  crime  or  debt  I  never  learned. 
Several  of  us  Americans  were  together.  A  party  of  French 
gentlemen  were  playing  billiards  in  the  same  room.  It 
was  evening.  Sixteen  gens  d'armes  suddenly  and  silently 
filed  in,  and  arrested  one  of  the  Frenchmen.  Not  a  word 
was  uttered ;  no  authority  was  shown  but  the  uniform  of 
the  soldiers.  No  warrant,  no  cause  assigned,  no  question 
asked,  but  the  man  in  dread  silence  was  marched  away, 
under  custody  of  his  guards.  I  felt  with  a  shudder  that  no 
Habeas  Corpus  act,  no  public  sympathy,  not  even  a  police 
report,  could  come  to  his  relief,  and  I  fancied  his  fate 
mine.  The  necessity  of  always  carrying  and  frequently 
renewing  a  passport,  the  alleged  danger  of  any  political 
conversation,  the  liability  of  even  letters  to  betrayal,  the 
probably  exaggerated  terrors  of  strict  surveillance,  tainted 
the  enjoyments  of  Paris  ;  and  I  breathed  in  England  that 
air  of  freedom  which  to  American  respiration  is  incon 
ceivably  refreshing,  without  which  Europe  with  all  its 
magnificence  is  splendid  misery.  Notwithstanding,  too, 
the  decided  preference  contracted  for  the  French  kitchen, 
I  enjoyed  the  first  slice  of  the  cold  roast  beef  of  old  Eng 
land,  on  which  I  lunched  at  Canterbury,  on  the  way  from 
Dover  to  London,  with  the  aboriginal  relish  of  first  love." 


CHAPTER    V. 

Era  of  Good  Feeling — Andrew  Jackson — Mr.  Ingersoll 
defends  Florida  Campaign — State  Assembly — In  Canal 
Convention  favors  Railroads — General  Convention  of 
Manufacturers — The  Tariff  of  1828 — Mr.  Ingersoll' s 
Views  on  the  Tariff  and  Commerce — New  York  Con 
vention  of  Friends  of  Domestic  Industry — Support  of 
Jackson — Nominated  for  United  States  Senate — Charges 
against  of  Improper  Conduct  as  District  Attorney — 
Bank  of  United  States — Mr.  Ingersoll  among  its  Sup 
porters — Pennsylvania  Resolutions  in  favor  of — Plan  to 
settle  Bank  Question — Interviews  with  Cabinet  Officers — 
Correspondence  with  Mr.  Biddle — Details  of  Jackson's 
Plan  for  a  Bank — Veto — Letter  to  Sentinel  in  Support 
of  Jackson — Bank's  Appeal  to  Coercion  for  Recharter — 
Mr.  Ingersoll  opposes  the  Bank — Bitter  Party  Feeling 
and  Proscription. 

DURING  the  years  which  followed  the  peace  of 
1815  the  current  of  political  affairs  was  for  a  long 
while  quiescent.  The  recuperative  measures  which 
had  been  made  necessary  by  the  war  once  passed, 
there  was  far  less  than  usual  in  the  state  of  public 
affairs  to  cause  political  contests,  and,  moreover, 
the  Democrats  were  in  such  complete  control,  and 
the  Federalists  so  hopelessly  disgraced,  that  there 
was  hardly  any  ground  left  for  dispute  except  the 
merest  questions  of  persons.  And  even  these  ques- 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tions  arose  only  about  the  closing  period  of  Mr. 
Monroe's  term ;  but  then  warm  personal  politics 
became  the  order  of  the  day,  and  in  a  few  years 
questions  came  up  which  again  divided  the  people 
upon  lines  not  dissimilar  from  those  which  had 
ruled  during  the  end  of  the  last  and  early  years 
of  this  century.  In  these  later  events  Andrew 
Jackson  was  a  chief  actor,  and  his  remarkable  per 
sonality  has  left  an  impress  upon  our  country  such 
as  only  very  few  have  made.  Undoubtedly  his 
power  and  wonderful  popularity  were  due  pri 
marily  to  his  personal  qualities,  but  it  is  clear  that 
he  had  also  a  vast  advantage  from  his  great  vic 
tory  at  New  Orleans.  Every  American  felt  a  debt 
of  personal  gratitude  to  him ;  he  had  restored  to 
every  man  in  the  country  his  national  pride  and 
self-confidence,  which  had  theretofore  suffered  so 
many  deep  humiliations,  and  Mr.  Clay  well 
said,31  upon  hearing  of  the  victory,  "Now  I  can 
go  to  England  without  mortification."  The  sense 
of  personal  gratitude  to  a  successful  general  is 
with  many  people  very  deep,  and  is  not  to  be  ap 
preciated  except  by  those  who  have  felt  it.  I  have 
heard  the  deepest  gratitude  expressed  and  seen 
the  most  persistent  adherence — with  a  touch  of 
almost  religious  devotion — to  a  leading  general  of 
the  civil  war,  from  the  lips  of  one  who  was  en 
titled  to  high  consideration  but  had  received  but 
scant  favors  from  the  general  in  question. 
149 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

And  this  same  feeling  existed  towards  Andrew 
Jackson.  Thus,  Mr.  Ingersoll,  who  had  favored 
Crawford  for  President  in  1824  as  the  regular 
candidate,  did  not  vote  at  all  in  the  Presidential 
election  of  1828,  because  he  felt  that  he  could  not 
vote  against  Adams,  who  had  continued  him  as 
District  Attorney,  and  could  not  possibly  "  vote 
against  the  hero  of  New  Orleans."  And  earlier 
yet,  in  1818,  at  the  time  when  Jackson  invaded 
Florida  and  executed  the  Englishmen  Ambrister 
and  Arbuthnot  at  St.  Mark's,  on  the  general 
ground  of  their  having  aided  and  incited  the  In 
dians  to  war  against  the  United  States,  he  had 
written  a  letter  to  the  Democratic  Press  defending 
the  general's  course.  The  instance  was  one  of 
those  events  of  an  intriguing  and  ruffian  border 
land,  where  the  rules  of  international  law  cannot 
be  strictly  applied ;  and  the  American  government, 
though  it  disavowed  Jackson's  action,  in  reality 
defended  him,  while  the  British  ministry  were  glad 
to  see  the  excitement  in  their  own  country  quiet 
down,  as  they  largely  accepted  our  version  of  the 
affair,  and  tacitly  assumed  that  Ambrister  and 
Arbuthnot  had  expatriated  themselves.  Mr.  In 
gersoll  sent  a  copy  of  his  letter  to  Mr.  Monroe, 
and  received  the  following  reply : 

"  WASHINGTON  July  24,  1818. 

"  DEAR  SIR, — I  have  had  the  pleasure  to  receive  your 
letter  of  the   I9th,  with  the  number  of  the  Demo  :  Press 
150 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

which,  contains  your  remarks  on  the  late  occurrences  in 
Florida,  which  I  have  read  with  much  interest  &  satisfac 
tion.  You  have  suggested  and  stated  many  ideas,  on  the 
subject,  which  are  perfectly  sound  and  correct,  and  care 
fully  avoided  any  compromitment,  on  ground  not  sustain 
able,  or  which  would  bring  you  into  conflict,  with  the 
course,  pursued  by  the  government. 

"The  fact  is,  that  the  General  acted  without  authority, 
&  even  against  his  orders,  in  the  material  circumstance  of 
taking  Pensacola.  The  conduct  however  of  the  Spanish 
officers,  is  thought  to  have  justified  him.  They  stimulated 
the  Indians  to  the  war,  furnished  them  with  munitions  of 
war  to  carry  it  on,  embarrassed  his  operations  by  refusing 
a  passage  to  his  provisions,  furnished  an  asylum,  as  you 
state,  to  a  principal  chief  &c.  The  facts  on  which  he 
rests  his  justification,  were  not  known  to  the  govt.  when 
his  orders  were  given,  many  of  them  indeed  occurred 
afterwards  ;  tho  I  do  not  think,  had  they  been  known,  or 
anticipated,  that  the  Executive  could  have  given  an  order 
to  take  the  posts.  Such  an  order  would  have  been  war, 
and  that  power  belongs  exclusively  to  Congress,  in  the 
first  instance.  To  retain  the  posts,  would  be  as  objection 
able  on  principle,  as  to  take  them,  and  might  lead  to  the 
same  consequences.  It  is  therefore  thought  proper  to 
restore  them.  But  as  the  Spanish  officers  are  the  aggres 
sors,  and  everything  that  has  been  done  is  imputable  to 
them,  the  minister  of  Spain  is  informed,  that  the  evidence 
proving  their  misconduct,  will  be  embodied,  as  the  ground 
of  an  application  to  his  govt.  for  their  punishment.  He  is 
further  informed  that  it  is  expected,  that  his  govt.  will 
place  a  force  in  Florida,  sufficient  to  fulfill  the  stipulation 
of  the  treaty  of  1795,  whereby  it  is  bound,  to  restrain  the 
Indians  from  committing  hostilities  against  the  U.  States. 
15* 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"There  were  two  courses  of  proceeding,  in  direct  op 
position  to  each  other,  &  differing,  each,  from  that  which 
has  been  adopted.  One  was  to  hold  the  posts,  &  meet 
the  consequences.  This  was  objectionable  for  the  reasons 
assigned  above.  The  other,  not  only  to  state  that  no 
orders  had  been  given  for  taking  them  but  to  bring  to 
trial  the  officer  who  took  them,  for  disobedience  of  orders. 
If  his  defense  is  good,  as  I  think  it  is,  there  is  no  ground 
on  which  to  try  him,  in  regard  to  Spain.  His  trial,  there 
fore,  would  be  a  triumph  to  that  power,  over  a  general, 
who  had,  on  his  own  responsibility,  avenged  the  injuries 
of  his  country,  and  to  which  triumph  his  own  govt. 
would  be  made  instrumental.  Such  a  measure  would  an 
nounce  to  Spain,  that,  let  her  act  as  she  might,  Florida 
was  in  no  danger  ;  we  would  never  take  it.  It  would  con 
firm  her  in  the  disposition  not  to  cede  it.  By  avoiding 
both  extremes,  we  have  endeavoured,  to  turn  the  incident, 
to  the  best  account  we  could  for  our  country,  &  to  the 
credit  of  the  General,  without  committing  a  breach  of  the 
constitution,  or  incurring  the  imputation  of  it,  or  furnishing 
to  Spain  just  cause  of  war.  Should  war  follow,  the  exec 
utive  will  not  be  responsible  for  it.  It  will  be  the  expe 
dient  of  desperate  councils,  adopted  as  the  last  resource 
to  save  their  colonies,  in  the  hope  of  uniting  Europe 
against  us  &  them,  on  the  calculation,  that  if  the  U. 
States,  and  Spain,  engage  in  war,  it  will  soon  become 
general,  &  in  favor  of  Spain.  Should  war  not  ensue,  it 
seems  probable,  that  the  multiplied  proofs  which  have 
been  afforded,  to  the  Spanish  govt.,  of  the  impossibility 
of  fulfilling  its  engagements  to  the  U.  States,  in  regard  to 
Florida,  will  induce  it,  to  cede  the  province. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear,  that  you  have  made  so  great  a 
progress  in  the  translation  of  Bynkershoek,  a  work  which 
152 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

will  I  doubt  not  do  you  credit,  and  add  much  to  the  pro 
fessional  knowledge  of  all  to  whom  the  original  is  un 
known. 

"with  great  respect  &  esteem  I  am 

"  dear  sir  sincerely  yours 
(Signed)  "  JAMES  MONROE." 

Though  Mr.  Ingersoll  did  not  return  to  Con 
gress — as  we  have  seen  he  had  set  before  himself 
to  do,  soon  after  the  end  of  his  first  term  of  ser 
vice — in  the  year  1832,  nor  indeed  until  1841,  yet 
with  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  decade  of  the 
century,  after  he  had  toiled  almost  exclusively  at 
the  bar  during  the  period  which  he  had  appointed 
for  himself,  he  did  take  the  most  active  part  in 
politics  generally,  and  he  served  a  term  in  the 
State  Assembly  in  1830-31.  But  there  are  some 
still  earlier  proceedings  of  importance  in  which  he 
took  part.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Canal  or 
Improvement  Convention,32  which  met  at  Harris- 
burg  August  4,  1825,  and  he  there  introduced  and 
advocated  a  resolution  for  trying  the  then  un 
known  merits  of  railroads  with  locomotive  engines, 
which  had  just  been  introduced  into  England.  He 
was  seconded  in  this  effort  by  Professor  Vethake, 
but  the  scheme  was  strenuously  opposed  by  some 
leading  men,  and  was  voted  down  by  a  large 
majority  as  both  impracticable  and  likely  to  be 
disadvantageous  to  the  canals.  Mr.  Ingersoll  had 
been  much  connected  with  Oliver  Evans,  and  had 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

heard  his  confident  predictions  of  the  uses  of 
steam,  and  no  doubt  it  was  in  this  way  that  he  had 
come  to  be  so  far  in  advance  of  the  knowledge  of 
his  day  upon  the  subject. 

In  1827  he  was  a  member  of  the  "General 
Convention  of  Agriculturists  and  Manufacturers 
and  others  friendly  to  the  Encouragement  and 
Support  of  the  Domestic  Industry  of  the  United 
States."  This  body33  was  called,  in  pursuance  of  a 
resolution  of  May  14,  1827,  of  "The  Pennsylvania 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Manufactures  and 
the  Mechanic  Arts."  During  the  preceding  winter 
a  bill  known  as  the  "  Woollen  Bill"  had  passed  the 
House,  but  been  defeated  in  the  Senate  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  Vice-President ;  and  it  appears 
to  have  been  then  decided  to  call  a  national  con 
vention  of  "  the  friends  of  domestic  industries,"  as 
they  styled  themselves,  with  a  view  to  making  a 
more  imposing  demand  for  further  protective 
legislation  from  the  next  Congress. 

It  was  in  pursuance  of  this  call  that  the  general 
convention  met  at  Harrisburg,  July  30,  1827.  In  it 
all  the  New  England  and  Middle  States,  and  Ohio, 
Kentucky,  and  Virginia,  were  represented.  Mr. 
Ingersoll  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  to  pre 
pare  a  Memorial  to  Congress,  and  was  very  active 
throughout.  The  Memorial  asked  that  the  duty 
on  raw  wool  costing  over  eight  cents  per  pound 
in  a  foreign  country  should  be  twenty  cents  per 
154 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

pound,  to  be  increased  gradually  to  fifty  cents  per 
pound;  and  on  woollen  goods  they  asked  for  forty 
per  cent,  ad  valorem,  to  be  increased  gradually  to 
fifty  per  cent.  Upon  the  motion  of  Mr.  Niles,  it 
had  been  resolved  that  "  the  interest  of  the  wool- 
growers  and  manufacturers  (which  are  in  a  very 
depressed  condition)  shall  be  made  the  chief  and 
leading  object  of  the  memorial  to  Congress ;"  but, 
in  addition  to  the  woes  of  the  wool  men,  several 
other  infant  industries  succeeded  in  introducing 
their  plaints.  The  convention  sat  only  five  days, 
and  resolved  that  its  expenses,  which  were  esti 
mated  at  about  five  hundred  dollars,  should  be 
paid  by  an  assessment  of  five  dollars  on  each 
member,  to  be  reimbursed  by  a  collection  in  their 
respective  States.  Shortly  after  this  the  German 
Professor  List,  who  had  been  expelled  from  Bava 
ria  for  his  liberal  sentiments  and  had  come  to  this 
country,  addressed  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  a  series  of 
letters  advocating  the  principles  of  protection. 
These  letters  were  thought  very  able,  and  were 
published  in  the  National  Gazette. 

The  memorial  of  this  convention  was  presented 
to  Congress  at  its  next  session,  and  that  Congress 
passed  the  tariff  act  of  1828.  This  was  bitterly 
opposed  by  the  Southern  members  and  by  the 
South  generally,  who  called  it  the  "  tariff  of  abom 
inations."  Schouler  writes  that  it  imposed  an 
average  duty  of  from  forty  to  forty-five  per  cent. 
155 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

on  woollen  goods.  It  was  not  a  measure  either 
of  the  administration  or  of  its  opponents,  and  was 
pressed  through  a  very  divided  and  disorganized 
Congress  on  the  eve  of  the  Presidential  election. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  thus  and  always  remained 
a  protectionist,  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  in 
favor  of  each  of  the  tariff  acts  passed  from  1816 
down  to  1830.  Nor  must  we  deceive  ourselves 
by  thinking  that  the  protection  he  and  others 
then  advocated  was  very  slight;  we  have  seen 
that  it  was  not,  though,  of  course,  the  rates  are 
now  in  general  even  higher,  and  the  field  covered 
is  immeasurably  wider  than  it  then  was.  But 
though  he  was  thus  a  protectionist, — and  probably 
no  man  could  have  had  a  place  in  politics  in  Penn 
sylvania  unless  he  believed  in  the  system, — yet  his 
views  of  commerce  were  in  general  broad  and 
liberal.  He  seems  to  have  read  the  writers  on 
political  economy,  and  thought  no  one  could  be 
insensible  to  the  "  persuasive  doctrines  of  that 
freedom  of  trade"  which  they  inculcate;  but  he  did 
not  think  they  could  be  safely  applied  in  our  new 
country  in  the  face  of  so  many  rivals  grown  to 
great  commercial  power  by  their  exclusive  sys 
tems. 

Some  of  the  pet  theories  of  the  protectionists 
received  but  scant  favor  from  him ;  and  on  one 
occasion,  being  asked  in  debate  whether  he  sup 
posed  we  could  export  iron  to  France  until  the 
156 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

wages  of  our  labor  were  reduced  to  the  standard 
of  France,  he  replied  that  that  theory  was  "  one 
of  the  greatest  humbugs  of  the  world."  He  was 
always  in  favor  of  extending  our  commerce,  and 
in  1839  wrote  to  a  Pottsville  paper  proposing  the 
export  of  "  stone  coal"  to  Europe.  And  when  in 
Congress  in  1842,  he  moved  to  amend  the  Civil 
Appropriation  Bill  by  inserting  an  appropriation 
of  five  thousand  dollars  for  a  commercial  agent  in 
Europe,  who  should  visit  different  countries  and 
endeavor  to  secure  a  market  for  American  goods 
by  representations  to  merchants  there,  as  well  as 
by  keeping  his  countrymen  informed  upon  prices 
and  other  matters  of  importance.  At  the  New 
York  Protective  Convention  of  1831  he  advocated 
free  coarse  cottons, — a  measure  by  no  means 
agreeable  to  the  manufacturers, — and  in  his  ad 
dress  on  October  22,  1835,  before  the  American 
Institute  in  New  York  upon  the  occasion  of  its 
Eighth  Annual  Fair,  he  presented  in  an  admirable 
way  the  advantages  of  a  wide  interchange  among 
nations,  and  showed  at  length  the  great  influence 
resulting  upon  national  power  and  development. 

More  than  once  during  his  career  he  urged 
treaties  with  foreign  countries  for  the  exchange 
of  commodities  on  a  basis  of  equality,  thus  coming 
very  near  to  what  has  been  called  reciprocity  in 
our  time;  and  more  especially  did  he  favor  such 
treaties  with  France.  When  in  the  State  Legisla- 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

ture,  in  1831,  he  introduced  resolutions  urging  the 
Federal  government  to  carry  into  effect  the  theory 
of  Franklin's  treaty  of  Versailles  for  national 
equality  and  commercial  reciprocity  with  that 
country.  This  was,  indeed,  always  one  of  his 
theories;  and  he  looked  for  great  benefit  from  a 
free  interchange  of  goods  with  France.  Not  only 
would  it  in  his  view  increase  trade,  but  it  would 
also  tend  to  liberate  us  from  too  great  dependence 
upon  British  manufactures.  Again,  in  1848,  soon 
after  the  French  Revolution  of  that  year,  he  pro 
posed  in  Congress  to  instruct  the  Ways  and 
Means  to  inquire  into  the  advisability  of  reducing 
the  rates  of  duty  on  French  importations  from 
thirty  to  fifteen  per  cent.  He  explained  that  his 
purpose  was  that  the  French  would  then  buy  our 
products  of  us,  and  his  plan  would  give  them  the 
means  of  paying  for  them.  The  resolution  was, 
however,  laid  on  the  table  by  99  votes  to  85. 

The  opposition  in  the  South  to  the  act  of  1828 
grew  more  and  more  strong,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1831  a  largely  attended  free-trade  convention 
was  held  in  Philadelphia  and  issued  an  address  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  On  October  26, 
1831,  shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  this  body, 
a  convention  of  "  Friends  of  Domestic  Industry" 
assembled  in  New  York.  This  body  was  also 
largely  attended,  consisting  of  five  hundred  and 
nine  members,  who  represented  all  the  New  Eng- 
158 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

land  and  Middle  States  and  Maryland,  Virginia, 
Ohio,  and  the  District  of  Columbia.  Wool  was 
again  very  prominent,  but  iron  and  steel,  sugar, 
copper,  cotton  and  cotton  goods,  chemicals,  silk, 
hemp,  glass,  porcelain,  hats,  and  cabinet  furniture 
all  had  committees  in  their  interests,  and  doubtless 
the  addition  of  their  voices  made  a  very  welcome 
increase  of  the  strength  of  the  protectionists.  The 
convention  sat  for  six  days  and  issued  an  address 
to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  chairman  of  the  committee  to  prepare  this 
address;  and  a  memorandum  in  his  handwriting 
upon  his  copy  informs  us  that  the  address  down 
to  the  last  paragraph  on  page  21  was  written  by 
Warren  Button,  of  Boston,  with  some  contribu 
tions  by  John  P.  Kennedy,  of  Baltimore,  while  the 
remaining  part  was  written  by  himself,  with  contri 
butions  by  Mr.  Kennedy.  An  entry  in  his  diary  of 
the  time  records  that  the  constitutional  part  of  the 
argument  of  the  address  was  "  revised,  I  have 
reason  to  believe,  by  Mr.  Webster  and  Judge 
Jackson,"  and  that  "  that  part  which  treats  of  po 
litical  economy  in  the  abstract  is  by  Mr.  Dutton, 
revised  if  not  prepared  by  some  of  the  ablest  men 
of  Cambridge  University."  In  reading  the  address 
one  is  struck  by  the  great  similarity  of  many  of 
the  arguments  used  to  those  of  to-day ;  indeed, 
the  address  might  in  general  serve  now  as  well  as 
sixty  years  ago.  But  some  portions  are  different 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

from    the   ordinary  line  of  argument,   and   trace 
quite  closely  the  history  of  the  tariff's  growth. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  removed  by  President  Jackson 
from  the  office  of  United  States  District  Attorney 
in  April,  1829,  and  George  M.  Dallas  appointed 
in  his  place ;  but  despite  this  and  his  disapproval 
of  the  very  general  removals  from  office  and  of 
certain  other  steps  of  the  administration,  he  sup 
ported  Jackson  from  the  start,  and  took  early  op 
portunity  to  announce  his  intention  to  do  so.  He 
was  greatly  pleased  with  the  famous  toast  which 
the  President  gave  so  unexpectedly  to  the  "  Fed 
eral  Union"  at  the  nullifiers'  dinner  on  Jefferson's 
birthday,  and  at  a  dinner  to  Mr.  Poinsett  in  Phila 
delphia  in  the  spring  of  1830  he  gave  as  a  toast, 
"  A  solid  Union,  firmly  hooped  together  under 
one  Federal  head,  the  only  rock  of  safety  for  the 
States."  In  his  speech  introducing  this  toast  he 
argued  against  the  claim  of  the  nullifiers  that  Mr. 
Jefferson  had  maintained  their  views,  and  in  speak 
ing  of  the  famous  dinner  said, — 

"  The  Pennsylvania  delegation  are  said  to  have  absented 
themselves  from  the  assembly  met  to  discover  when  Jeffer 
son' s  birth  day  was  cast  by  the  necromancy  of  the  modern 
horoscope  :  Like  the  absence  of  certain  busts  expected  at 
the  funeral  of  Germanicus,  they  would  not  have  been  in 
keeping  at  the  obsequies  of  the  constitution.  The  sober, 
solid  centre  !  It  stands  fast,  not  unmoved,  but  unshaken 
by  the  alternate  rocking  of  the  battlements  east  and  south. 
1 60 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

But  the  President  was  there,  novus  hospes.  Yes,  he  was 
there  in  his  capacity  as  commander  in  chief.  When  he 
assumed  the  command  at  New  Orleans,  the  country  must 
and  shall  be  saved,  was  his  orders  of  the  day  ;  which  he 
enforced  by  surprising  and  defeating  the  enemy,  not  ex 
pecting  him,  as  soon  as  they  landed.  At  the  seat  of  Gov 
ernment  he  proved  himself  every  inch  a  President  at  a 
dinner  as  much  as  at  a  battle.  By  the  master  stroke  of  a 
mere  toast,  he  nullified  the  nullification  he  was  invited  to 
magnify.  While  thus  he  defends  the  country  and  the 
constitution,  he  is  worthy  and  welcome,  to  govern  the  one 
and  administer  the  other.  He  may  take  what  freedoms 
he  will  with  the  offices  of  the  Union,  whilst  he  preserves 
the  Union  inviolate,  and  the  people  and  the  patriotic, 
those  who  neither  court  his  favors  nor  fear  his  frowns,  will 
support  him.  On  the  next  anniversary  of  the  nation's 
birth  day,  the  only  political  holiday  kept  by  Mr.  Jefferson, 
may  the  President" s  toast  be  toasted  at  every  festival,  from 
Little  Rock  to  Passamaquoddy  ! — The  Constitution  must 
be  maintained''1 

While  in  the  Legislature  in  1830,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  nominated  in  both  Houses  for  United  States 
Senator  for  the  place  about  to  be  vacated  by 
William  Marks.  Eleven  candidates  were  nomi 
nated  in  the  House  and  eight  in  the  Senate,  and 
his  name  headed  each  list ;  but  on  the  twenty-first 
ballot  William  Wilkins  was  elected,  who  had  at 
first  had  almost  no  support.  Mr.  Ingersoll's  high 
est  vote  was  eleven  on  the  fourth  ballot.  During 
the  canvass  he  wrote  a  letter  in  reply  to  some 
friends  in  the  Legislature,  in  which  he  stated  that 
161 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

he  was  a  supporter  of  General  Jackson,  but  had 
remained  entirely  neutral  during  the  campaign  of 
1828,  because  Mr.  Adams  had  reappointed  him 
District  Attorney  in  1826  under  "very  peculiar 
circumstances,"  and  he  had  felt  that  he  could  not 
honorably  vote  against  him.  The  use  of  this  ex 
pression  requires  some  explanation,  and  has  refer 
ence  to  a  long-lived  but  now  forgotten  political 
slander. 

It  appears  that  in  1822,  when  renominated  by 
Mr.  Monroe,  some  charges  of  improper  conduct 
had  been  brought  against  him,  and  an  effort  made 
to  prevent  confirmation  by  the  Senate.  These  were 
met  before  a  committee  of  that  body,  before  which 
the  accusers  failed  to  appear  upon  notice,  and  the 
nomination  was  soon  confirmed.  I  presume  that 
the  same  charges  were  brought  up  again  in  1826, 
and  that  Mr.  Ingersoll's  reappointment  despite 
them  by  a  President  whom  he  did  not  support 
explains  his  use  of  the  above  term.  The  charges 
remained  on  the  carpet  for  many  years^  however, 
and  in  some  publication  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  language  was  used  which  political  oppo 
nents  turned  into  a  formal  charge  that  he  was  a 
public  defaulter.  It  is  fortunately  not  necessary 
to  go  into  these  charges  at  length.  One  of  them, 
which  partisanship  has  kept  from  entire  oblivion 
even  to  the  present  day,  grew  out  of  what  were 
known  as  the  "  tea  cases."  A  tea  merchant  was 
162 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

found  to  have  been  engaged  for  several  years  in 
fraudulently  removing  tea  so  as  to  avoid  the  duties, 
and  he  had  in  this  way  at  many  different  times 
removed  some  seventy  thousand  parcels.  When 
the  indictments  came  to  be  drawn  the  question 
arose  how  many  indictments  there  should  be,  and 
this  was  a  matter  of  personal  interest  to  the  Dis 
trict  Attorney  and  other  officers,  as  they  were  paid 
in  part  by  fees  upon  each  case.  I  presume  that 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  accusers  took  the  layman's  view 
that  a  single  indictment  would  suffice,  but  a  lawyer 
will  hardly  be  of  this  opinion.  The  view  taken  by 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  that  there  should  be  one  indict 
ment  for  each  separate  act  of  removal,  and  there 
were  thus  over  five  hundred  indictments  for  the 
removal  of  the  seventy  thousand  parcels  by  over 
five  hundred  separate  deliveries.  Antony  Laussat 
and  Joseph  A.  Clay,  who  were  at  the  time  students 
in  Mr.  Ingersoll's  office,  testified  that  they  had 
been  engaged  in  drawing  the  indictments  and  had 
been  constantly  enjoined  by  him  "  to  take  care  and 
not  multiply  the  indictments,  but  compress  as 
many  cases  of  tea  as  possible  in  each  one." 

The  plan  under  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  thus  acted 
received  later  the  approval  of  Judge  Hopkinson, 
but  there  were  other  grounds  of  difference  with 
the  Treasury  officials.  Thus  he  claimed  that  he 
was  entitled  to  fees  for  services  rendered  outside 
of  the  exact  line  of  his  duty  as  District  Attorney, 
163 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  he  held  in  his  hands  a  sum  of  money  which 
he  had  collected  and  kept  invested  to  abide  the 
final  event,  informing  the  Treasury  of  the  fact  of 
his  doing  so  and  of  his  reasons.  The  total  claim 
of  the  United  States  against  him  was  over  thirty- 
nine  thousand  dollars,  a  large  part  of  which  con 
sisted  of  an  absurd  claim  upon  judgments  which 
had  been  marked  satisfied,  but  the  money  had  never 
been  received  by  the  United  States, — the  truth 
being  that  they  had  been  paid,  not  to  Mr.  Ingersoll 
but  to  the  marshal,  and  the  latter  was  a  defaulter. 
Absurd  as  the  charges  of  impropriety  were, 
they  gave  him  a  vast  deal  of  trouble.  For  a  long 
time  he  pressed  the  Treasury  officials  in  vain  for 
a  suit  against  him,  so  that  the  questions  involved 
might  be  disposed  of;  but  finally  the  matter  was 
tried  before  Judge  Hopkinson  in  the  spring  of 
1837,  and  after  sixteen  days'  trial,  involving  a 
complete  examination  of  the  most  complicated 
accounts  covering  a  period  of  fourteen  years,  every 
charge  of  impropriety  was  completely  disproved 
and  almost  every  one  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  conten 
tions  was  sustained.  The  only  point  of  moment 
ruled  against  him  was  as  to  some  of  the  claims  for 
fees  for  extra  legal  services  rendered  to  certain 
subordinate  officers.  And  even  as  to  these  the 
trial  judge  recognized  that  the  moral  claim  was 
perfect,  but  did  not  think  the  subordinate  officer 
in  question  had  the  power  to  bind  the  govern- 
164 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ment.  The  disallowance  of  these  claims  was  ad 
mitted  to  leave  him  owing  not  quite  four  thousand 
dollars  (consisting  of  part  of  the  sum  he  had  kept 
invested  to  abide  the  event)  to  the  United  States, 
and  there  was  accordingly  a  verdict  against  him 
for  that  sum,  which  was  soon  settled,  and  the 
whole  matter  thus  in  reality  ended,  though  it  long 
remained  a  basis  of  charge  and  has  survived  in 
one  partisan  mind  even  to  this  day.  The  jury 
which  heard  the  case  sent  the  following  letter34  to 
Mr.  Ingersoll : 

"  PHILADELPHIA,  April  6,  1837. 

"  SIR, — During  the  recent  judicial  investigation  of 
claims  between  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  and 
yourself,  involving  the  settlement  of  large  sums  of  money, 
and  which  of  necessity  required  an  examination  of  your 
official  conduct  as  attorney  for  the  United  States  in  this 
district  for  a  period  of  fourteen  years,  the  undersigned 
who  were  indiscriminately  drawn  from  among  your  fellow 
citizens  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  those  claims,  and 
having  attentively  weighed  and  examined  those  charges 
made  against  you,  and  sustained  with  so  much  zeal, 
talent,  and  persevering  industry  by  the  district  attorney, 
and  which  were  as  promptly  answered  by  yourself,  and 
with  conscious  integrity  rebutted  and  disproved  in  most 
cases,  the  jury  have  awarded  a  verdict  leaving  a  balance 
in  favor  of  the  United  States. 

"The  number  of  years  these  accounts  have  remained 

unsettled,  although  every  exertion  was  made  on  your  part 

to  obtain  a  settlement,  may  have  produced  an  unfavorable 

impression  in  the  minds  of  persons  unacquainted  with  the 

165 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

causes  of  delay,  and  perhaps  already  predisposed  to  cen 
sure  those  whose  talents  may  have  placed  them  in  elevated 
stations. 

"The  undersigned,  who  in  the  late  trial  have  seen  the 
whole  of  your  official  conduct  closely  and  critically  exam 
ined,  do  cheerfully  offer  to  you,  sir,  the  expression  of  an 
opinion  that  your  conduct  as  district  attorney  was  zealous 
and  strictly  just,  and  creditable  not  only  to  yourself,  but 
to  the  bar  of  which  you  are  a  member. 

"  With  respect  and  esteem  your  fellow  citizens, 

"J.  ROACH,  GEO.  W.  PAGE, 

"JOSEPH  PRICE,  LEWIS  RYAN, 

"CORUS    COMEGYS,  JOHN    BYERLY, 

"PATRICK  HAYES,  ISAAC  FREEMAN, 

"  MILES  N.  CARPENTER,         HUGH  DICKSON, 
'•'W.  J.  SMITH,  A.  M.  HOWELL. 

"To  CHARLES  J.  INGERSOLL,  ESQ." 

It  has  been  seen  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  in  favor 
of  the  establishment  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  in  1816.  He  was  also  one  of  the  supporters 
of  Nicholas  Biddle  for  its  presidency  to  succeed 
Cheves  in  1822,  and  he  and  Mr.  Biddle  were  inti 
mate  personal  friends  for  many  years,  and,  indeed, 
despite  wide  differences  in  politics,  and  especially 
concerning  the  bank,  their  friendship  was  never 
broken.  In  1841,  when  troubles  had  thickened 
about  Mr.  Biddle,  Mr.  Ingersoll  wrote  to  offer  his 
services  in  the  suits  brought  against  him  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Bank  of  the  United  States ;  and, 
though  the  offer  was  declined,  on  account  of  Mr. 
166 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Ingersoll's  engagements  in  Congress,  the  feelings 
which  prompted  it  were  evidently  appreciated. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  remained  a  supporter  of  the  bank 
for  a  number  of  years  during  Jackson's  term  of 
office,  and  became  its  opponent  only  when  its 
conduct  had  in  his  opinion  rendered  it  impossible 
to  do  otherwise.  The  hints  of  opposition  to  the 
recharter  of  the  bank  contained  in  Jackson's  first 
and  succeeding  messages  found  no  response  in 
him;  on  the  contrary,  he  criticised  them  unfavor 
ably,  as  did  at  first  the  vast  majority  of  the  public 
men  of  the  country.  In  December,  1829,  he  wrote 
John  Forsyth  expressing  this  view,  and  Mr.  For- 
syth  agreed  with  him,  and  expressed  his  regret 
that  "  the  general  had  not  omitted  the  strictures  on 
the  bank."  Nor  did  he  confine  himself  to  private 
letters,  but  early  in  1831,  with  the  knowledge  and 
co-operation  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  he  introduced 
resolutions  into  the  State  Legislature  in  favor  of 
the  bank. 

These  were  the  well-known  resolutions  which 
were  charged  to  have  been  passed  through  bribery. 
Mr.  Biddle  was  greatly  interested  in  them  pend 
ing  their  passage,  and  quoted  to  Mr.  Ingersoll 
an  extract  concerning  the  immense  effect  such 
resolutions  would  have  from  "  a  letter  from  Al 
bany  of  a  friend  of  mine  who  went  there  for  the 
purpose  of  reconnoitring  and  counteracting  the 
design  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  move  the  legislature 
167 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

against  the  Bank."  It  was  evidently  at  one  time 
in  doubt  whether  the  resolutions  could  be  carried; 
and  presumably  this  was  the  reason  why  Mr.  In- 
gersoll  introduced  them  reading  in  favor  of  "  a" 
bank,  having  already  arranged  that  certain  mem 
bers  were  to  move  to  substitute  "the"  for  "a." 
Presumably  it  was  for  this  same  reason  that  the 
resolution  for  the  bank's  recharter  was  coupled 
with  others  in  favor  of  protection  and  of  the  Union 
and  against  the  claims  of  the  nullifiers.  They 
were  finally  passed  by  decisive  majorities,  after 
having  at  one  stage  met  with  a  serious  repulse, 
and  after  having  had  a  clause  added  in  favor  of 
distribution  of  the  surplus  revenue  among  the 
States,  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  voted  against. 

Soon  the  New  Hampshire  Patriot  charged — and 
the  Washington  Globe  reprinted  the  charge — that 
the  passage  of  the  resolution  for  the  bank  had  been 
obtained  by  a  system  of  corrupt  bribery.  To  this 
Mr.  Ingersoll  and  other  members  of  the  Legisla 
ture  from  Philadelphia  and  its  vicinity  hastened  to 
publish  an  indignant  denial.  This  was  dated  May 
1 8,  1831,  and  first  appeared  in  the  American  Sentinel 
of  Philadelphia,  but  was  widely  copied.  It  referred 
to  the  fact  of  the  charge  being  published  in  "  a 
leading  Democratic  paper,  and  republished  in  the 
paper  which  is  understood  by  the  people  to  be  the 
official  organ  of  the  national  administration,"  and 
pronounced  it,  "  no  matter  by  whom  made,  by  whom 
168 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

repeated,  or  by  whom  countenanced,  to  be  an  un 
founded  and  atrocious  libel."  But  this  by  no 
means  ended  the  matter,  and  charges  and  counter 
charges  were  for  some  time  rife  among  the  dif 
ferent  elements  of  the  Democrats.  It  is  curious 
to  observe  how  even  those  members  of  the  party 
who  were  in  favor  of  the  bank  strove  hard  to  avoid 
an  open  clash  with  the  immensely  popular  Presi 
dent.  Thus,  the  Sentinel  on  June  n  asserted 
that  the  President  cordially  supported  each  of  the 
resolutions  of  the  Legislature,  and  warned  those, 
"  whoever  they  are,  that  would  crush  the  present 
administration,  and  the  Democratic  party,  in  at 
least  temporary  overthrow,  for  the  good  of  the 
succession,  that  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  is 
wedded  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  to  the 
Tariff,  to  the  Judiciary,  in  a  word,  the  AS  YOU  ARE 
system."  They  thus  strove  to  unite  with  them  all 
the  strength  of  the  feeling  in  the  State  for  the 
tariff  and  the  wide-spread  sentiment  against  the 
nullifiers'  theories,  and  at  the  same  time  rang  the 
changes  upon  the  charge  that  the  anti-bank  move 
ment  was  but  a  plan  of  New  York  to  destroy  the 
bank  in  Philadelphia  and  establish  a  new  insti 
tution  in  New  York.  The  Legislature  of  New 
York  had  replied  to  the  Pennsylvania  resolutions 
by  a  series  of  resolutions  opposed  to  the  bank. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  a  history  of  the  memo 
rable  struggle  with  the  bank,  but  still  many  of  the 
169 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

details  of  that  history  bear  so  closely  upon  Mr. 
Ingersoll's  life  that  they  are  essential  here.  Though 
many,  if  not  most,  of  even  our  federal  historians 
admit  that  on  the  whole  the  continuance  of  the 
bank  was  not  desirable,  yet  they  all  maintain  that 
Jackson,  through  some  spleen,  "  made  war"  upon 
it.  But,  as  Benton  stoutly  maintained,  the  bank 
had  no  vested  right  to  be  rechartered,  and  no 
attack  was  made  upon  it  when  the  expediency  of 
recharter  was  questioned.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  suppose  that  Jackson  was  actuated  by  mere 
spleen  or  temper.  It  is  far  more  likely  that  his 
mistrust  was  caused  by  a  natural  suspicion  of  it 
from  its  vastness  and  its  stupendous  power.  His 
instinct  taught  him  in  advance  what  the  facts  later 
showed,  that  the  enormous  power  it  wielded  could 
not  be  safely  trusted  to  its  secret  conclave;  and 
when  the  facts  were  once  developed,  his  country 
men  supported  him,  even  when  he  went  further 
and  did  reply  to  its  assaults  by  attacks,  as  in  the 
removal  of  the  deposits.  In  the  history  of  the 
contest,  the  tariff,  the  rupture  with  Calhoun,  and 
the  discontent  and  nullifying  movement  of  South 
Carolina  were  all  closely  bound  up,  and  the  Demo 
cratic  supporters  of  the  bank  did  their  utmost  to 
couple  Calhoun,  nullification,  and  the  opposition  to 
the  tariff  with  the  opposition  to  recharter.  Such 
was  at  least  their  effort  in  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  probably  true  that  Jackson  at  first  desired 
170 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  postpone  the  contest  until  after  his  re-election ; 
and  his  message  of  1831  omitted  the  strictures 
which  the  two  earlier  ones  had  contained.  It  was 
then  a  very  moot  question  with  the  bank  whether 
it  should  apply  for  a  charter  at  once  or  wait.  It 
had  an  envoy  (General  Cadwalader)  at  Washing 
ton35  upon  this  point  in  the  end  of  1831  ;  but  it 
was  finally  decided — largely  through  the  influence 
of  Clay — to  apply  at  once.  They  thought  to  em 
barrass  Jackson  by  forcing  on  him  the  alternative 
to  sign  the  bill  for  recharter  or  else  to  veto  it 
shortly  before  the  election ;  but  never  did  a  bolder 
game  more  completely  miscarry. 

During  February  and  part  of  March,  1832,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  was  in  Washington,  whither  he  had  gone 
to  attend  to  some  cases  in  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  and  was  a  very  close  watcher  of 
the  events  then  going  on.  He  saw  much  of 
nearly  all  the  actors  in  the  scenes  of  the  day, 
dining  out  and  visiting  constantly ;  and  he  wrote 
many  letters  to  Mr.  Biddle,*  from  which  material 

*  Among  the  letters  which  have  been  in  my  hands  are  a 
few  from  Mr.  Biddle  to  Mr.  Ingersoll.  In  one  of  these, 
under  date  of  February  21,  1831,  he  writes,  "In  regard 
to  Mr.  Clay,  he  once  owed  the  Bank  in  1821  or  1822 
about  22  thousand  dollars.  He  paid  it  all  principal  and 
interest.  When  our  western  troubles  began  he  was  ap 
pointed  the  counsel  of  the  bank  for  Kentucky  &  Ohio 
receiving  a  salary  for  one  or  perhaps  two  years  of  $5000 
171 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  some  historical  interest  can  be  gleaned.  Upon 
his  arrival  he  wrote  at  once  that  the  administration 
was  much  provoked  at  the  introduction  of  the 
question,  and  he  thought  its  power  would  be 
thrown  for  delay.  He  had  some  other  matter  on 
hand  which  brought  him  close  to  Mr.  Livingston, 
and  he  soon  took  advantage  of  this  to  find  out 
how  the  administration  felt  upon  the  subject  of 
the  bank.  On  February  9  he  had  a  long  inter 
view  with  him,  and  suggested  what  was  evidently 
a  plan  of  Mr.  Biddle's, — that  the  bank  question 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  Mr.  McDuffie 
and  be  passed  as  a  distinct  administration  measure, 
after  certain  alterations  had  been  made  in  the 
charter  to  meet  the  views  of  the  President. 

The  plan  was  originally  that  this  should  be  done 
by  Mr.  Dallas  introducing  such  a  bill  in  the  Sen 
ate  ;  later  Mr.  Wilkins  was  selected  as  the  leader  of 
the  move.  Mr.  Livingston,  who  favored  recharter, 
took  the  matter  up  most  earnestly,  spoke  with  the 
President,  and  privately  sounded  the  cabinet.  On 
February  21,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  able  to  write  that 
Mr.  Livingston  informed  him  that  McLane,  Cass, 
and  Woodbury,  as  well  as  Livingston  himself, 
were  in  favor  of  the  movement.  Of  Barry  nothing 

&  afterwards  of  $3000  a  year.  When  he  went  to  the 
Dept  of  State  he  settled  his  account  and  since  then  has 
been  a  stranger  to  the  Bank." 

172 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

was  said,  while  Taney  alone  of  the  cabinet  was  re 
ported  as  against  them ;  but  they  had  hopes  of 
winning  him  over,  as  they  had  also  of  Lewis  and 
Kendall,  two  important  members  of  what  has  been 
called  the  "  kitchen  cabinet."  Two  days  later,  Mr. 
Livingston  asked  whether  Mr.  Biddle  would  agree 
to  "  the  President's  views  of  the  terms  for  a  new 
charter."  Mr.  Ingersoll  replied  that  he  had  no 
doubt  of  it,  but  was  not  authorized  to  speak  posi 
tively  ;  and  he  then  made  a  written  memorandum 
in  Mr.  Livingston's  presence  of  what  Mr.  Living 
ston  said  these  terms  *  were.  Mr.  Biddle  was 

*  Mr.  Ingersoll's  letter  details  these  terms  as  follows  : 

"i.   Government  to  have  no  interest  in  the  bank. 

"  2.  President  of  U.S.  empowered  to  appoint  a  Director 
at  each  bank  so  that  government  may  be  represented  at 
each. 

"  3.  States  authorized  to  tax  the  property  both  real  & 
personal  of  the  bank  within  the  said  States  in  like  manner 
as  the  States  may  tax  other  property  within  them. 

"  4.  The  bank  to  hold  no  Real  Estate  but  such  as  it 
may  be  constrained  to  take  in  payment  or  security  of  its 
debts,  and  to  be  compellable  by  law  to  sell  that  within 
stated  time. 

"  The  foregoing  I  understand  from  Mr.  L.  are  the  Presi 
dent's  terms. 

"5.  A  certain  proportion  of  the  stock  or  capital  to  be 
thrown  open  to  new  subscriptions,  which  may  be  done  by 
pro  rata  reduction  of  the  present  capital,  or  by  addition 
to  it. 

'73 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

willing  to  agree  to  most  of  these  alterations,  but 
he  evidently  objected  to  some. 

With  McLane,  also,  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  inter 
views  in  the  same  interest,  and  found  him  hurt  and 
provoked  at  the  early  precipitation  of  the  question 
of  recharter,  in  violation  of  his  opinion  and,  as  he 
thought,  of  an  understanding  with  General  Cad- 
walader.  Mr.  McLane  denied  positively,  as  had 
Mr.  Livingston,  that  Jackson  had  ever  said  he 
would  "put  down  the  bank,"  but  he  also  empha 
sized  the  objection  of  the  President  to  being 
"  forced." 

What  appears  to  have  defeated  this  plan,  sup 
posing  it  could  otherwise  have  succeeded,  was  the 
pending  resolution  of  Clayton  for  a  committee 
of  inquiry.  This  most  of  the  supporters  of  the 
bank  were  afraid  openly  to  oppose,  and  finally 
McDuffie  unexpectedly  agreed  to  its  passage. 
The  day  preceding  this,  Mr.  Livingston  had  as 
sured  Mr.  Ingersoll  that  the  President  would 
without  hesitation  sign  a  bill,  if  one  was  sent  to 

"This — 5 — is  not  the  President's  requirement  :  but  Mr. 
L.  seems  to  be  very  tenacious  of  it,  always  urging,  that  it 
will  facilitate  very  much  the  recharter. 

"6.  The  Directors  to  nominate  annually  two  or  three 
persons  of  whom  the  President  to  appoint  any  one  as 
President  of  the  bank. 

"This — 6 — neither  the  President  nor  Mr.  L.  like.     It  is 
the  suggestion  of  others — he  said  ..." 
174 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

him  in  accordance  with  his  opinions ;  but  had 
added  that  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  would 
stop  the  plan,  for,  if  Congress  should  order  an 
inquiry,  the  President  must  await  the  issue  of  it. 
The  President,  he  said,  had  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  introduction  of  the  resolution.  The  first 
belief  of  the  bank's  supporters  was  that  the  in 
quiry  was  intended  to  delay  the  matter  indefinitely, 
and  they  blamed  McDuffie  in  round  terms  for  his 
action  in  consenting  to  the  passage  of  the  resolu 
tion.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  told  later  by  the  Speaker 
that  McDuffie  had  said  he  did  it  so  that  action  on 
the  tariff  should  precede  that  on  the  bank.  Mr. 
Livingston  still  maintaining  that  the  President 
would  sign  a  proper  bank  bill  (though  he  said  he 
had  "  never  heard  him  say  so,  but  had  good  reason 
to  rely  on  it"),  the  next  idea  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  was 
for  the  bank  immediately  to  send  a  memorial  to 
Congress  asking  for  investigation,  but  strongly 
deprecating  delay;  and  that  through  Mr.  Wilkins 
or  some  one  else  bills  should  be  introduced  as  ad 
ministration  measures  (i)  to  compromise  the  tariff 
question  (which  Mr.  Livingston  said  would  "  win 
Jackson's  heart"),  and  (2)  to  recharter  the  bank 
with  the  proposed  modifications.  Mr.  Biddle  did 
not  approve  of  requesting  investigation,  and  the 
whole  plan  miscarried.  Unfortunately  the  corre 
spondence  ends  here,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  returned 
home  soon  after  the  middle  of  March.  During  his 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

stay  he  had  endeavored  to  advance  the  plans  on 
foot  by  a  series  of  letters  to  the  American  Sentinel 
under  the  name  of  "  Tulpehocken"  and  "  Tulpe- 
hocken  of  Yellow  Breeches,"  and  to  the  Enquirer 
of  Philadelphia  under  the  name  of  "  Incognito." 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  on  March  10,  Major 
Lewis  had  said  in  Mr.  Ingersoll's  presence  that 
Jackson  might  take  up  the  tariff  question  and 
make  it  his  own,  but  as  to  the  bank,  he  said, "  I  do 
not  know  his  sentiments." 

Later,  Mr.  Biddle  was  himself  in  Washington 
taking  an  active  personal  part  in  the  question  of 
recharter.36  Establishing  himself  at  a  hotel,  hosts 
of  legislators  there  paid  court  to  him,  and,  under 
the  seductive  inspiration  of  their  flattery  and 
pushed  on  by  the  ardent  Clay,  the  fatal  determina 
tion  was  arrived  at  to  force  the  President's  hand. 
Accordingly,  they  pushed  their  bill  through  Con 
gress,  and  the  adjournment  of  the  session  was  then 
so  arranged  that  the  President  must  veto  the  bill 
or  let  it  become  a  law.  The  result  is  well  known. 
The  bill,  which  was  so  passed  and  vetoed,  contained 
some  of  the  provisions  which  Mr.  Livingston  had 
urged,  but  in  the  main  omitted  them.  The  pro 
visions  in  regard  to  State  taxation  and  against 
holding  real  estate  were  in  the  bill  in  modified 
forms,  but  the  others  were  all  omitted.  It  is  clear 
that  as  the  fight  waxed  hot  in  Washington,  and 
under  the  inspiration  of  Clay's  strong  will,  Mr. 
176 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Biddle  and  all  the  bank's  supporters  became  over 
bold  and  convinced  that  they  had  the  game  in 
their  hands. 

Nor  did  the  veto  disabuse  them,  for  they  looked 
confidently  for  the  overthrow  of  Jackson  in  the 
elections.  Mr.  Biddle  wrote37  that  he  was  de 
lighted  with  the  veto  message,  and  that  it  ex 
hibited  "  all  the  fury  of  a  chained  panther,  biting 
the  bars  of  his  cage."  The  fundamental  error  of 
the  bank  was  in  the  constant  assumption  that  its 
stockholders  had  a  vested  right  to  be  rechartered. 
This  cannot  be  admitted  for  a  moment,  but  they 
always  assumed  it,  and  from  this  postulate  easily 
convinced  themselves  that  the  President  was 
"  making  war"  upon  them  when  he  questioned 
and  later  vetoed  recharter.  From  the  time  of  the 
veto — whatever  was  the  case  before — even  the 
stoutest  partisan  of  the  bank  must  admit  that  it 
entered  actively  into  politics  and  "  made  war" 
upon  the  President,  and  justified  the  charge  that  it 
was  arrogating  to  itself  the  position  of  a  "  new 
estate  in  the  realm." 

This  was  the  feature  of  the  contest  which  mainly 
led  to  Mr.  Ingersoll's  becoming  an  opponent  of  the 
bank,  but  his  action  was  also  influenced  by  other 
causes.  His  feelings  of  admiration  and  gratitude 
to  Jackson  had  been  augmented  by  personal  ac 
quaintance  in  Washington,  and  he  had  become 
convinced  that  he  was  pre-eminently  the  man  to 

x*  177 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

look  to  to  save  the  tariff  and  to  steer  the  country 
in  safety  through  the  perils  that  were  threatening 
from  the  Southern  discontents.  Hence,  though  he 
doubtless  regretted  the  veto  of  the  Bank  bill,  he 
was  a  supporter  of  the  Tariff  Act,  which  was  signed 
by  the  President  within  a  few  days  of  the  veto,  and 
he  continued  to  support  the  administration.  Nor, 
though  the  bank  influence  was  then  supreme  in 
Philadelphia,  and  the  whole  atmosphere  was  reek 
ing  with  hatred  of  the  President  and  of  the  veto, 
did  he  hesitate  publicly  to  announce  his  intention, 
but  as  early  as  July  18  published  the  following 
letter  in  the  American  Sentinel: 

"  The  long  and  intimate  connexion  I  have  had  with  the 
cause  of  domestic  industry,  and  my  settled  conviction  that 
its  protection  is  essential  to  the  independence  and  pros 
perity  of  this  country,  induce  me  at  the  present  moment, 
when  that  cause  has  just  passed  through  a  great  trial,  en 
dangering  the  union  itself,  to  submit  to  my  fellow  citizens, 
especially  of  my  native  city  and  state,  the  reasons  which 
convince  me  that  to  support  the  present  administration  is  the 
surest  means  of  maintaining  what  is  called  the  American 
system,  and  the  union  of  these  United  States,  on  which 
the  only  practicable  American  System  altogether  depends. 

"  Residence  at  the  seat  of  government  during  a  consid 
erable  part  of  the  late  session  of  Congress,  afforded  me 
continual  opportunities  of  being  satisfied,  by  personal  in 
tercourse  with  the  President  and  otherwise,  that  General 
Jackson  has  well  considered  the  subject,  is  well  informed 
in  its  principles  and  details,  and  inflexibly  determined  to 
178 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

sustain  by  his  official  and  personal  influence  every  branch 
of  essential  manufactures. 

' '  The  government  of  the  United  States  has  become 
much  more  complicated  and  difficult  than  formerly,  owing 
chiefly  to  the  question  of  legislative  protection,  to  encour 
age  the  industry  of  a  country  so  extensive  and  diversified 
in  its  regions,  so  peculiar  and  independent  in  its  political 
structure,  as  this.  The  acknowledged  imperfections  of 
the  former  Tariff  acts,  and  the  complaints  of  the  south, 
imposed  upon  the  federal  government  the  unavoidable 
duty  of  a  judicious  compromise.  I  have  reason  to  know 
that  Mr.  Madison,  we  have  all  seen  that  Mr.  Adams  and 
Mr.  Clay,  together  with  others  of  our  most  experienced 
and  responsible  statesmen,  and  a  great  majority  of  the 
people,  deemed  such  a  measure  indispensable  to  preserve 
either  manufactures  or  the  union.  I  can  bear  witness,  and 
I  deem  it  a  duty  to  do  so,  from  actual  and  unbiassed  ob 
servation,  while  at  the  seat  of  government,  that  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  vital  compromise  we  are  all  deeply 
indebted  to  the  personal  exertions,  the  official  courage  and 
the  devoted  patriotism  of  General  Jackson. 

"  Now  that  the  crisis  is  probably  over,  there  may  still  be 
some  alarm  in  the  East,  and  more  disaffection  in  the 
South.  But  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to  anticipate  results, 
all  the  great  national  interests  have  reason  not  only  to  be 
satisfied,  but  gratified.  The  recent  Act  of  Congress  places 
them  all  on  a  more  solid  and  permanent  foundation  than 
they  ever  enjoyed  before.  The  revenue  has  been  taken 
mostly  from  articles  not  requiring  protection.  Iron,  Cotton 
and  Sugar,  with  the  accessional  branches  of  industry,  are 
well  secured.  Woollen,  the  only  interest  respecting  which 
there  is  any  doubt,  is  fortified  by  the  enacted  principle  of 
what  is  conceived  to  be  sufficient  protection,  which  can 
1/9 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  no  doubt  will  be  hereafter  carried  farther,  if  experi 
ence  should  prove  it  to  be  necessary.  The  modifications 
incorporated  with  the  new  law,  especially  that  abridging 
credits,  are  not  only  equivalents  but  improvements,  which 
render  the  system  more  effectual  by  simplifying  it ;  and 
there  is  every  reason  to  trust  that  American  industry  will 
hereafter  more  certainly  than  heretofore  enjoy  the  home 
market,  without  distress  from  foreign  incursions,  which  is 
all  it  has  ever  required  or  can  expect  from  Government. 

"At  the  same  time  nullifaction  is,  if  not  disarmed,  at 
least  put  in  the  wrong  ;  and  the  southern  adherents  of  the 
Union,  who  are  among  its  most  valuable  members, 
strengthened  with  the  means  of  resisting  its  assailants, 
without  an  appeal  to  force. 

"  I  have  never  been  one  of  those  believing  that  General 
Jackson  can  do  no  wrong.  There  are  acts,  and  indeed 
avowed  principles,  of  his  administration,  of  which  I  do  not 
approve  ;  not  doubting  that  he  is  as  indulgent  to  the  sin 
cere  dissent  of  others,  as  I  think  they  should  be  to  what 
may  be  deemed  his  errors.  But  in  common  with  the  rest 
of  the  American  people  I  learned  from  the  heart  to  identify 
him  with  the  salvation  and  glory  of  our  country,  when  by 
his  admirable  courage,  discretion  and  humanity  he  saved 
this  Union  from  dissolution  in  bloodshed  and  conquest  at 
the  close  of  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain.  The  warm 
affection  which  then  united  the  people  to  him  is  a  gen 
erous  sentiment  ;  and  the  personal  power  with  which  it 
raised  him  to  the  Chief  Magistracy  is  an  honest  and  avail 
able  popularity,  which  may  be  turned  to  the  greatest  ac 
count.  It  qualifies  him  more  than  any  other  of  our  citi 
zens,  to  preserve  the  Union  on  which  the  character, 
happiness  and  prospects  of  this  country  depend. — Every 
one  must  choose  between  the  great  parties  into  which  we 
iSo 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

are  divided,  who  will  not  throw  his  mite  away  in  useless, 
selfish  neutrality.  While  the  maxim  of  every  republican 
should  be  measures  not  men,  yet  in  the  choice  of  men, 
without  reckoning  the  debt  of  irredeemable  gratitude 
which  we  owe  to  General  Jackson,  even  upon  a  dispas 
sionate  calculation  of  the  public  recommendations  of  the 
eminent  persons  no\v  candidates  for  the  Chief  Magistracy, 
I  hold  it  to  be  best  to  abide  by  the  honest  voice  of  the 
people  in  his  favour  ;  and  to  side  with  that  man  from 
whom  consolidation  and  nullifaction  have  most  to  fear, 
the  national  union  and  industry  most  to  hope.  This  ap 
pears  to  me  to  be  especially  the  true  doctrine  for  my  native 
city  and  state,  the  most  constant  and  the  most  interested 
support  of  these  great  interests.  And  the  conjuncture 
when  every  exertion  is  making  to  supplant  the  present 
administration,  as  its  opponents  claim  with  assurances  of 
success,  they  must  acknowledge  to  be  the  fittest  moment 
for  a  freeman  like  themselves,  who  as  an  individual 
neither  hopes  or  fears  from  General  Jackson's  administra 
tion,  without  presuming  to  disparage  their  sentiments,  to 
make  known  his  own. 

"  C.  J.  INGERSOLL. 

"  PHILADELPHIA,  i8th  July  1832." 

A  few  days  after  the  date  of  this  letter  (July  23) 
a  "  veto  meeting"  was  held  in  Philadelphia,  at 
which  Henry  Horn  presided,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll 
and  others  made  addresses.  Resolutions  were 
passed  approving  the  veto,  but  the  opposition 
papers  maintained  that  more  was  said  of  Jackson 
than  of  the  veto.  They  admitted,  however,  that 
there  were  nearly  as  many  present  as  at  the  anti- 
veto  meeting.  During  the  canvass  Mr.  Ingersoll 
181 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

supported  the  Democratic  nominees  earnestly,  as 
serting  his  own  view  upon  the  bank  question,  but 
holding  the  opinion,  as  has  been  seen,  that  most 
of  the  great  questions  of  the  day  were  safest  in 
Jackson's  hands.  I  judge  from  his  expressions 
that  he  had  no  great  hope  of  Jackson's  success, 
and  such  would  naturally  be  his  conclusion  in  the 
atmosphere  of  Philadelphia,  where  the  bank's  in 
fluence  was  so  enormous. 

From  the  time  of  Jackson's  re-election,  compro 
mise  between  the  bank  and  him  was  impossible, 
and  the  war  became  one  of  extermination.  The 
bank  had  long  held  the  role  of  an  opponent  of 
him  personally ;  but  with  his  re-election  the  case 
became  far  worse,  for  the  fact  was  emphasized  that 
it  was  exerting  a  bitter  hostility  to  the  President 
of  the  country.  Even  were  it  possible  that  it  could 
otherwise  have  saved  itself,  this  was  fatal,  for  the 
American  people  came  to  see  that  a  body  of 
money  magnates  was  waging  war  against  the  gov 
ernment  which  the  people  had  chosen.  One  step 
led  to  another,  and  finally,  in  September  of  1833, 
the  order  for  the  gradual  removal  of  the  public 
deposits  from  the  bank  was  issued;  and  to  this  the 
bank  replied  in  December  by  a  most  insolent 
report  upon  the  well-known  paper  Jackson  had 
read  to  his  cabinet  in  September,  which  it  recited 
as  "  a  paper  signed  '  Andrew  Jackson/  purporting 
to  have  been  read  to  a  cabinet  on  the  i8th." 
182 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

All  through  this  ill-judged  report  the  President 
is  referred  to  as  "Andrew  Jackson,"  between  marks 
of  quotation,  while  the  "  paper,"  as  Schouler  writes, 
is  "  held  out  as  though  between  a  pair  of  tongs" 
to  suggest  its  spuriousness.  It  seems  that  this 
report  was  the  step  which  finally  decided  Mr.  In- 
gersoll.  He  had  evidently  long  disapproved  of 
the  conduct  and  assumptions  of  the  bank,  and  had 
become  convinced  that  it  possessed  far  too  great 
power,  and  was  assuming  ground  impossible  to 
maintain  ;  but  this  studied  insult  to  the  President, 
and  "  appeal  to  coercion  for  recharter,"  as  he  once 
called  it,  was,  I  believe,  the  act  which  in  his  view 
capped  the  climax. 

Precisely  when  his  mind  was  finally  made  up  I 
do  not  know;  but  the  first  public  part  he  took 
against  the  bank  was  in  March,  1834,  at  the  meet 
ing  which  was  held  in  Philadelphia  to  approve 
the  removal  of  the  deposits.  Before  doing  so  he 
called  on  Mr.  Biddle  and  announced38  at  length 
his  intentions  and  reasons.  He  was  on  the  com 
mittee  to  draft  resolutions  for  this  meeting,  and 
the  first  fourteen  resolutions  appear  to  have  been 
drawn  by  him ;  the  others  &  were  drawn  by 
Thomas  Earle ;  but  Mr.  Ingersoll  declined  to  pre 
sent  them  at  the  meeting,  and  they  were  accord 
ingly  presented  by  the  chairman,  Mr.  Dallas.  Mr. 
Earle's  resolutions  approved  in  a  few  words  the 
removal  of  the  deposits,  expressed  opposition  to 
183 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

their  restoration  and  to  the  recharter  of  the  bank, 
and  approved  of  national  conventions.  Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  were  more  elaborate,  and  strongly  empha 
sized  the  fact  that  the  struggle  going  on  was  one 
between  the  bank  and  the  American  government. 
The  meeting  was  an  enormous  one,  and  the  ex 
tremely  bitter  state  of  party  feeling  found  expres 
sion  in  the  speeches. 

This  extreme  bitterness  of  party  feeling  con 
tinued  for  a  number  of  years,  and  all  the  sup 
porters  of  Jackson  received  their  full  meed  of  par 
tisan  dislike.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  quick-tempered 
and  outspoken,  and  came  in  for  more  than  a  full 
share  of  this.  He  and  his  family  were  hissed  on 
at  least  one  occasion,  while  sitting  at  their  win 
dows,  by  the  crowd  marching  away  from  a  pro- 
bank  meeting ;  and  it  is  said,  and  is  by  no  means 
unlikely,  that  a  person  he  nominated  to  the  Philo 
sophical  Society  was  black-balled  because  of  his 
support.  The  people  of  power  and  influence  were 
nearly  all  supporters  of  the  bank,  and  were  in  a 
high  degree  prescriptive.  It  was  by  no  means 
mere  exaggeration  when  the  Democrats  spoke  of 
the  Bank  Reign  of  Terror,  and  it  is  quite  true  that 
their  opposition  to  the  bank  was  "  at  every  peril 
of  personal,  social,  professional,  and  political  in 
dignity  and  privation."  4° 


184 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Banking  System — "  Committee  Powers" — "  River  Rights" 
— Bush-Hill  Address — Convention  of  1837 — Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  Course  in — Education  and  the  Judiciary — Minority 
Report  from  Committee  on  Currency  and  Corporations 
— Nominated  for  Congress — Heated  Campaign — The 
Bank  in  Politics — Case  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  Son  John — 
The  Sub-Treasury — Mr.  Ingersoll's  Early  Plan  for — 
Contested  Election — Third  Campaign,  and  Election  to 
Twenty-Seventh  Congress. 

MR.  INGERSOLL  had  always  thought  the  power 
exercised  by  banks  of  suspending  specie  payments 
a  great  wrong  and  indefensible  in  law ;  and  he 
was  strongly  opposed  to  any  paper  money  not 
immediately  and  at  all  times  redeemable  in  coin. 
To  confer  on  any  body  of  men  the  power  to  issue 
notes  otherwise  was,  he  thought,  to  confer  spe 
cial  privileges  quite  foreign  to  our  system  of  gov 
ernment.  He  was,  indeed,  generally  suspicious 
of  banks  of  issue,  and  in  favor  of  closely  limiting 
their  powers.  He  was,  moreover,  fully  convinced 
of  the  evils  of  the  system  under  which  State  banks 
sprang  up  in  such  numbers  and  issued  their  notes 
broadcast,  and  thought  the  whole  system  of  State 
banks  bad,  if  not  unconstitutional,  and  that  the 
185 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

control  of  the  currency  as  well  as  of  the  coinage 
should  have  been  conferred  on  Congress. 

It  has  been  shown  that  he  was  originally  a  sup 
porter  of  the  United  States  Bank,  but  his  opinions 
were  deeply  influenced  by  the  developments  of  the 
struggle  between  the  bank  and  Jackson.  Doubt 
less  he  had  at  first  merely  accepted  an  existing 
state  of  affairs  and  had  not  considered  its  correct 
ness  or  desirability.  The  bank  was  an  institution 
at  his  own  door,  which  to  all  outward  appearance 
was  in  good  condition  and  doing  a  good  work, 
and  he  accepted  it  as  a  fact  without  special  in 
quiry.  This  is  what  all  men  do,  in  the  vast 
majority  of  instances,  and  it  is  only  when  some 
striking  proof  is  brought  out  in  such  cases  that 
the  opinions  of  a  community  are  changed.  But 
when  the  flagrant  proof  is  forced  upon  the  public 
by  a  powerful  chain  of  dazzling  evidence  all  point 
ing  the  same  way,  a  whole  people  will  at  times 
make  an  almost  instant  volte-face.  We  have  seen 
this  in  more  recent  times,  and  it  is  largely  what 
happened  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  Bank. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  Jackson's  party  in  Penn 
sylvania  almost  to  a  man  regretted  at  first  his 
strictures  upon  the  bank,  and  the  same  thing  was 
true  as  to  possibly  a  smaller  proportion  of  his 
party  throughout  the  country.  To  maintain,  how 
ever,  that  their  later  change  of  view  was  the  result 
of  interested  motives  is  not  only  to  be  very  unjust, 
1 86 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

but  to  mistake  greatly  the  influences  which  guide 
men  and  make  their  opinions.  Still,  it  is  one  of 
the  burdens  of  public  life  that  such  changes  are 
attributed  to  selfish  interest,  though  we  all  know 
that  history  can  be  ransacked  and  probably  not  a 
single  character  be  found  who  has  not  radically 
changed  many  of  his  views  in  the  course  of  his 
career  and  under  the  influence  of  the  ever- 
changing  circumstances  of  life  and  of  varying 
knowledge.  But  none  the  less  the  public  man 
must  be  very  wary  of  the  crime  of  inconsistency, 
and  must  not  let  his  actions  indicate  that  any 
hidden  self-interest  or  hope  of  preferment  led  to 
his  change  of  opinion.  Mr.  Ingersoll,  though  he 
had  uniformly  supported  Jackson,  even  at  a  time 
when  interested  motives  could  hardly  be  suspected 
in  a  Philadelphian,  was  unwilling  to  accept  office 
at  his  hands,  and  declined  an  appointment  which 
was  tendered  him  by  the  President  through  Mr. 
Forsyth.  He  preferred  that  his  actions  should 
not  be  open  to  suspicion. 

I  suppose  that  from  not  long  after  1830  he  was 
anxious  to  obtain  a  seat  in  Congress  in  accordance 
with  the  plan  he  had  formed  many  years  before ; 
and  from  about  that  time  his  interest  and  his  share 
in  the  great  political  events  of  the  day  were  very 
great.  Thus,  when  in  May,  1834,  the  committee 
of  the  House  came  to  Philadelphia  to  investigate 
the  bank  and  was  met  by  a  resolution  of  the  direc- 
187 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tors  that  their  own  committee  should  always  be 
present,  and  that  only  written  questions  should  be 
answered,  the  chairman  consulted  Mr.  Ingersoll41 
as  to  their  powers  and  as  to  the  advisability  of 
issuing  subpoenas  to  enforce  the  presence  of  wit 
nesses. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  very  clear  that  they  had  full 
power  to  compel  testimony,  but  advised,  as  a 
matter  of  policy,  that  they  should  report  to  the 
Plouse  for  its  action  whenever  their  investigations 
were  brought  to  a  stand.  This  became  the  case 
before  long,  and  the  committee  reported  the  facts 
to  the  House,  but  there  the  matter  rested.  Later 
a  Senate  committee  in  the  bank's  favor  was  ap 
pointed,  with  authority  to  sit  after  the  adjournment 
of  the  session.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  of  opinion  that 
neither  House  of  Congress  had  the  power  to  au 
thorize  its  committee  to  sit  after  its  adjournment, 
and  wrote  "  A  View  of  the  Committee  Powers  of 
Congress,"  in  which  this  opinion  was  argued.  It 
was  one  which  he  continued  always  to  hold  and 
repeatedly  urged  in  Congress.  Mr.  Benton 42  held 
the  same  opinion. 

Another  public  question  in  which  he  took  much 
interest  about  this  time  was  the  contest  between 
the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  the  Schuylkill  Navi 
gation  Company.  The  latter  claimed  to  own  very 
broad  powers  in  the  waters  of  the  river  by  grant 
from  the  Legislature.  In  "  A  View  of  River 
1 88 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Rights"  Mr.  Ingersoll  examined  these  claims  and 
endeavored  to  refute  them. 

In  June,  1834,  he  bought  from  the  estate  of 
Zachariah  Poulson  a  farm  of  about  twenty-three 
acres  situated  in  what  was  then  the  unincor 
porated  Northern  Liberties.  This  country-seat, 
which  he  called  "  Foresthill,"  was  about  four 
miles  from  the  State  House,  and  became  for  many 
years  his  usual  residence  in  the  summer  months. 
He  probably  at  once  took  some  part  in  the  local 
politics  of  that  portion  of  the  city,  and  it  was  this 
district — the  Third  Congressional  District  of  Penn 
sylvania — which  he  later  represented  in  Congress. 
On  July  4,  1835,  he  delivered  an  address43  at  Bush 
Hill  to  the  Democrats  of  the  district,  in  which  he 
reviewed  the  political  events  and  some  of  the  per 
sonages  of  the  day,  making  a  close  analysis  of 
their  tendencies  and  appealing  altogether  to  the 
intellectual  faculties  of  his  hearers.  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  able  to  make  a  "  stump"  speech,  but  he  usually 
appealed  to  his  audience  from  a  higher  plane.  On 
this  occasion  he  said, — 

"The  extraordinary  veteran  about  to  retire  from  the 
Chief  Magistracy,  has  so  administered  it  as  to  make  it  very 
difficult  for  any  but  a  strict  republican  to  succeed  him  in 
its  administration.  .  .  .  With  deep  insight  into  human 
nature,  and  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  character  of  the 
American  people  in  particular,  a  moral  firmness  surpass 
ing  the  warrior  courage  which  first  signalized  him,  forecast, 
189 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

profound  address  and  wariness,  far  different  from  the 
hasty  temper  ascribed  to  him,  and  as  France  found  to 
her  cost,  an  iron  fixedness  of  purpose  that  nothing  can 
break  or  bend,  indefatigably  active,  stirring,  and  enter 
prising,  he  himself  suggested  the  leading  measures  of  his 
towering  administration,  from  many  of  which  his  cabinet 
shrunk,  and  superintended  himself  their  minutest  details 
in  publication  and  execution.  Free  and  communicative 
as  the  air,  yet  secret  as  the  grave,  prompt  to  conceive, 
having  by  sustained  success  become  confident  in  his  own 
judgment,  he  refers  it  always  to  the  standards  of  religious 
obligation  and  the  point  of  honour.  His  antagonists  abuse 
him  because  his  governance  has  been  what  they  admire, 
the  vigorous  administration  of  a  single  executive.  As 
suming  no  power  but  that  conferred  by  the  constitution,  he 
has  shown  that  the  power  it  does  confer,  in  the  hands  of  a 
popular  president,  renders  our  government  what  Mr. 
Jefferson  considered  it,  the  strongest  in  the  world.  The 
star  of  Jackson  has  been  so  long  so  lucky,  that  the  Romans 
would  have  surnamed  him  Felix  or  Fortunatus.  The  Ro 
manism  of  his  character  was  remarked  by  Mr.  Jefferson. 
Patriotism  is  an  instinct  with  him  ;  republicanism  also  a 
natural  impulse  ;  and  Americanism  likewise — that  noble 
independence  of  European  supremacy  which  flourishes 
most  beyond  the  Alleghany  Mountains  ;  the  spirit  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  that  all  men  are  equal  ;  a 
generous,  jealous  disdain  of  other  men's  superiority,  like 
chastity  to  women,  a  conservative  manly  principle  indis 
pensable  to  political  and  social  dignity.  For  a  thousand  fac 
titious  and  time-serving  calculations,  he  substitutes  the  trans- 
cendant  power  of  ingrained  straightforwardness,  and  for 
all  the  learning  and  all  the  talents,  that  mother  wit  without 
which  they  are  all  but  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals. 
igo 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  In  the  radical  work  of  his  reforming  presidency,  which 
has  taken  away  most  of  the  modifications  engrafted  on  the 
system  of  Jefferson,  and  restored  the  constitution  to  its 
primitive  standard,  Mr.  Van  Buren  has  been  Gen.  Jack 
son's  chief  adviser  and  cordial  aid;  and  the  democratic 
party  have  selected  him  to  succeed  to  the  presidency  as 
they  elected  him  to  the  vice-presidency.  .  .  . 

"No  part  of  the  United  States  has  a  deeper  stake  in 
their  preservation  by  Mr.  Van  Buren's  election  to  the 
presidency,  than  those  portions  which  may  set  up  a  South 
ern  candidate.  Let  Old  England  and  New  England  say 
what  they  may  of  the  Plantation  States,  they  are  the  head 
quarters  of  liberty,  as  the  Western  States  are  of  indepen 
dence,  and  the  Eastern  of  equality.  In  Pennsylvania 
we  are  none  of  us  friends  of  slavery.  But  such  men  as 
Montesquieu  and  Burke  have  borne  their  testimony  to  the 
fact  that  the  love  of  freedom  is  most  stubborn  and  jealous 
in  the  Southern  masters  of  slaves.  Such  was  the  case  in 
the  ancient  commonwealths,  as  it  is  in  Virginia  and  the 
Carolinas.  To  which  doctrine  from  Burke  let  me  add  an 
other,  that  praise  or  blame  does  not  belong  to  anything 
human  on  a  simple  view  of  the  object,  as  it  stands  stripped 
of  every  relation,  in  all  the  nakedness  and  solitude  of 
metaphysical  abstraction.  Slavery  in  the  abstract  is  de 
plorable  and  indefensible,  and  perhaps  the  brightest  page 
of  Pennsylvania's  annals  is  that  which  contains  the  first 
act  for  its  gradual  abolition.  But  slavery  in  the  United 
States  is  no  more  an  abstraction  than  liberty.  The  Union 
found  it  in  the  Union,  part  and  lot  of  the  Union,  and  was 
constrained  to  sanction  it  as  a  strand  in  the  bands  of 
Union,  which  to  take  away  is  to  sunder  the  whole.  .  .  . 

"  Mr.  Webster's  connexion  is  with  that  once  pronounced 
party,  and  always  influential  portion  of  the  United  States, 
191 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

which  stands  aloof  from  the  democratic  standards  and  ap 
proximates  to  those  of  England  ;  whigs  but  not  democrats. 
A  great  lawyer,  a  distinguished  senator,  endowed  with 
amazing  powers  of  reasoning,  the  senatorial  conflict,  in 
which  this  distinguished  gentleman  overthrew  nullification, 
raised  him  to  high  rank  by  a  noble  victory.  But  though 
always  a  leader  in  debate,  when  has  he  been  such  in 
action  ?  He  has  shewn  much  more  talent  for  convincing 
than  controlling  men.  Neither  the  government,  nor  any 
party  has  been  influenced  by  his  leading,  while  his  shining 
career  has  been  a  series  of  discomfitures.  He  opposed  the 
war,  whatever  may  now  be  said,  as  unreservedly  as  any 
member  of  the  party  opposed  to  it.  He  opposed  a  bank 
when  proposed  by  a  democratic  administration,  and  he 
insisted  on  the  bank  which  forfeited  public  good  will  by  its 
infatuation.  He  opposed  the  manufacturing  interest  when 
it  wanted  support,  and  supported  it  when  its  friends 
thought  proper  to  reduce  it  for  the  sake  of  the  Union.  His 
whole  course  as  a  statesman  proves  him  to  be  much  more 
of  an  orator  ;  .  .  . 

"  Mr.  Webster's  professional  influence,  much  more 
signal  than  his  political,  has  succeeded  in  corrupting 
American  jurisprudence  with  some  of  the  most  extravagant 
and  intolerable  dogmas  of  the  English  code — nay  what 
would  now  be  rejected  by  it.  What  may  be  deemed  his 
first  great  effort  in  the  Supreme  Court,  was  in  the  case 
of  the  Dartmouth  College,  when  he  induced  that  tribunal 
to  carry  the  corporation  privilege  beyond  all  bounds, 
owing  as  has  been  thought  to  the  absence  of  Pinkney,  who 
was  opposed  to  him  ;  and  his  latest  labor  there  in  the  case 
of  a  Boston  Insurance  Company,  prevailed  over  a  majority 
of  the  bench  to  adopt  one  of  the  most  unwarrantable  aber 
rations  of  the  English  maritime  policy  from  the  law  of 
192 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

nations  ;  in  the  first  mentioned  case  against  the  sound 
judgment  of  one  dissentient  democrat  on  the  bench, 
and  the  law  as  taught  from  Locke  to  Hallam  ;  in  the 
last  against  the  judgment  of  all  the  democrats  on  the 
bench,  and  the  law  of  all  nations  except  modern  Great 
Britain.  .  .  . 

"All  that  is  good  in  government  is  republican.  It  is 
all  ascribable,  under  Providence,  to  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people.  Whatever  since  the  English  revolution  has  been 
achieved  of  great  or  good  in  England  or  France,  is  owing 
to  the  working  of  the  democratic  principle.  Great  Britain 
owes  more  to  the  impulses  of  her  short-lived  common 
wealth,  than  to  all  her  kings  and  ministers,  and  all  the 
meliorations  of  which  France  may  certainly  boast,  are 
ascribable  to  conventions  and  national  assemblies  in  the 
first  stages  of  her  revolution.  Even  if  the  tendency  of  the 
democratic  principle  be  downward,  I  for  one  prefer  the 
despotism  of  democracy  to  that  of  monarchy  or  aristoc 
racy. 

"  It  is  this  democratic  principle  which  is  to  be  promoted 
in  the  person  of  Martin  Van  Buren  ;  .  .  . 

"  Let  the  educated  and  emulous  youth  of  this  knowing 
and  aspiring,  free  and  equal  nation  ponder  this  spirit,  and 
strive  for  the  patent  of  popular  nobility,  which,  if  conferred 
on  Mr.  Van  Buren,  the  boy  of  Kinderhook,  will  put  him 
far  above  all  merely  aristocratic  privilege.  Let  them  learn 
to  think  well  of  the  people,  and  to  do  something  for  those 
who  reward  so  magnificently.  A  demagogue  is  despica 
ble  ;  a  courtier  of  the  people,  is  worse  than  the  courtier 
of  a  king  ;  an  unprincipled  counterfeiter  of  democracy,  no 
democrat  at  all.  But  sincere  confidence  in  the  virtue  of 
the  people,  honest  and  generous  study  of  their  good,  in 
flexible  attachment  to  liberty  and  equality,  and  repugnance 
13  *93 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  exclusive  privileges,  make  a  patriot  in  any  country,  and 
a  president  in  this.  The  most  absolute  spirit  of  popularity, 
which  shone  in  Hampden,  the  most  accomplished  gentle 
man  as  well  as  the  first  statesman  of  England,  in  Lafay 
ette,  a  like  conspicuous  instance  of  the  popular  nobility  in 
France,  in  Washington,  Jefferson  and  Madison, — that 
loyalty  of  republicanism,  which  is  as  superior  to  monarchical 
patriotism,  as  Christianity  is  to  paganism — eclipses  by  its 
light  and  immortality  the  little  stars  of  rank,  fashion, 
wealth  and  social  exclusiveness.  Far  be  it  from  this  day 
of  the  declaration  of  independence  and  equality,  to  dis 
parage  or  undervalue  private  respectability  and  merely 
social  distinction.  In  this  country,  wealth  may  be  safe  in 
its  enjoyments,  and  fashion  is  perfectly  free  in  its  fantasies. 
But  again,  and  finally,  I  say  to  the  educated  and  emulous 
youth  of  these  United  States — let  them  contemplate  Mr. 
Madison  in  his  retirement  ;  after  filling  all  the  high  places 
which  the  people  have  to  give  as  the  reward  of  that  real 
popularity,  which  is  followed  by,  instead  of  following  after 
them  ;  a  man  who,  without  ever  appealing  to  a  passion, 
rose  to  eminence  and  renown,  by  the  slow  but  certain 
growth  of  calm  reason  and  sincere  devotion  to  the  public 
good — let  them  think  of  this  surviving  patriarch  of  democ 
racy,  enthroned  in  his  magnificent  seclusion — and  learn 
from  it  to  prefer  and  promote  the  democratic  principle.  It 
is  this  principle  which  is  our  country.  It  is  the  band  of 
American  Union — the  spring  of  American  prosperity — the 
scripture  of  American  distinction.  It  is  our  three  estates 
in  one.  It  is  this  which  made  Mr.  Van  Buren  President 
of  the  Senate  that  rejected  him  ;  and  if  it  makes  him  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  will  bind  him  to  the  preservation 
and  furtherance  of  the  democratic  principle,  by  all  the 
ways  of  pleasantness,  in  all  the  paths  of  peace." 
194 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

At  this  time  in  Pennsylvania  the  question  of  a 
convention  to  reform  the  constitution  had  become 
an  issue  of  great  moment  There  had  been  a  des 
perate  contest  upon  the  same  question  in  1805,  in 
the  days  of  Duane,  but  the  reformers  were  so 
beaten  that  they  carefully  avoided  any  suggestion 
of  the  matter  for  years.  Gradually,  however, 
public  opinion  ripened,  and  the  Legislature  in 
1835  passed  an  act  submitting  the  question  to 
vote.  Shortly  after  his  Bush-Hill  address  Mr. 
Ingersoll  was  called  upon  for  his  views,  and  wrote 
in  reply  a  public  letter  announcing  that  he  had 
long  had  a  strong  feeling  against  change,  but  had 
finally  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  indis 
pensable  in  many  parts  of  the  constitution.  He 
took  part  in  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  at 
Doylestown  in  September  in  favor  of  the  conven 
tion,  and  was  chairman  of  the  committee  to  draft 
their  address.  One  of  the  points  which  the  re 
formers  advocated  was  an  extension  of  the  right 
of  suffrage ;  and  it  is  instructive  to  observe  how 
the  suffrage  was  extended  by  the  amendments 
adopted  in  1838,  although  the  language  of  the 
new  provision  was  not  so  different  from  that  of 
the  old  one. 

The  resolutions44  of  the  Doylestown  Conven 
tion  and  the  public  "  pledges"  of  some  of  the 
candidates  were  in  favor  of  a  "  greater  extension 
and  equality  in  the  right  of  suffrage,"  and  recited 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

that  the  existing  law  was  arbitrary  and  unequal, 
because  it  caused  the  privilege  "  to  depend  on  the 
preconceived  notions  of  the  inspector  and  to  vary 
with  the  various  election  districts."  The  amend 
ments  of  1838  for  the  first  time  strictly  limited  the 
suffrage  to  white  freemen,  and  it  seems  that  in 
some  counties  free  blacks  had  been  allowed  to 
vote.  In  December,  1837,  in  the  Quarter  Sessions 
of  Bucks  County,  in  a  contest  of  the  election  of 
Abraham  Fretz  as  commissioner,  Judge  Fox  re 
viewed  the  history  and  legislation  upon  the  sub 
ject  at  some  length,  and  held  that  it  was  very 
clear  that  free  blacks  could  not  be  allowed  to  vote. 
He  said,'*— 

"  From  the  best  information  I  have  been  able  to  obtain, 
no  negro  has  ever  voted  in  the  city  or  county  of  Philadel 
phia,  where  there  were  probably  more  negroes  than  in  all 
the  rest  of  the  State.  In  the  majority  of  the  counties  they 
have  not  been  suffered  to  vote,  and  the  practice  to  permit 
them  to  do  so  anywhere,  grew  up  long  after  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution." 

The  popular  vote  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  a 
convention,  and  the  next  Legislature  passed  a  law 
for  the  election  of  delegates.  At  this  election 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  one  of  the  members  chosen. 
The  convention  assembled  at  Harrisburg  in  May, 
1837,  and  comprised  many  of  the  ablest  men  of 
the  State,  but  unfortunately  its  meeting  was  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  panic  of  that  year.  Active  as 
196 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  throughout  this  body's  sitting, 
it  is  not  my  intention  to  examine  the  proceed 
ings  at  much  length.  Whether  he  and  his  friends 
were  right  in  their  assertion  that  from  the  very 
start  the  convention  was  managed  in  a  highly 
partisan  way,  certain  it  is  that  it  was  at  least  man 
aged  in  a  way  which  in  the  main  excluded  them 
from  much  influence,  and  what  they  did  succeed 
in  accomplishing  was  won  only  after  hard  and 
continued  fighting.  They  maintained  that  the 
committees  were  all  organized  against  them,  and 
it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  se 
cured  a  special  committee  on  currency  and  cor 
porations,  of  which  he  was  chairman.  Even  this, 
too,  was  so  constituted  by  Mr.  Sergeant  that  its 
chairman  found  himself  in  a  minority, — a  proceed 
ing  on  the  part  of  the  president  of  the  convention 
which  Mr.  Ingersoll  wrote  to  Mr.  Gilpin  was  con 
trary  to  all  parliamentary  usage  and  common 
decency.  However  this  may  be,  the  result  at 
least  was  that  the  committee  came  near  to  making 
no  report  at  all,  but  merely  strangling  the  whole 
subject  by  a  disagreement. 

Among  the  subjects  upon  which  he  took  an 
active  part  were  education  and  the  judiciary. 
Until  the  acts  of  1834  and  1836  there  had  been 
only  a  most  insufficient  public  school  system  in 
the  State,  the  Legislature  having  in  the  main 
neglected  to  carry  out  the  constitutional  provi- 
197 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

sions.  The  ill  effects  of  this  Mr.  Ingersoll  dilated 
on  at  length,  and  proposed  a  mandatory  provision 
that  would  insure  the  right  to  a  public  education 
to  all  children.  He  did  not  succeed  in  this  effort, 
and  the  existing  provision  of  the  constitution  was 
not  altered,  but  the  agitation  of  the  subject  doubt 
less  had  its  effect,  and  the  laws  of  1834  and  1836, 
which  had  been  bitterly  opposed,  remained  upon 
the  statute-book  and  became  the  basis  of  a  good 
system.  Mr.  Ingersoll  also  proposed  that  chil 
dren  should  be  taught  in  English  or  German  as 
localities  might  prefer,  being  of  opinion  that  the 
experience  of  almost  all  other  countries  showed 
that  two  languages  would  be  by  no  means  unde 
sirable.  Mr.  Duponceau,  who  was  not,  however, 
a  member  of  the  convention,  agreed  with  him  in 
this,  but  the  proposition  was  voted  down. 

Upon  the  judiciary,  also,  he  spoke  at  length,  and 
was  in  favor  of  leaving  the  power  of  appointment 
with  the  Governor,  with  the  approval  of  the  Senate, 
with  a  new  provision  that  the  Governor  should 
have  the  right  to  remove  upon  vote  of  the  Repre 
sentatives.  Many  highly  partisan  judges  bur 
dened  our  benches  at  that  time,  and  many  infirm 
and  useless  ones  held  on  to  office  under  what  was 
called  a  tenure  of  good  behavior  but  was  in  reality 
(as  was  said  at  the  time)  one  for  life.  Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  desire  was  that  the  judiciary  should  be  inde 
pendent  but  not  "  irresponsible."  His  proposition 
198 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

did  not  succeed,  and  the  tenure  finally  inserted 
was  for  a  term  of  years. 

Another  subject  which  he  specially  discussed  was 
that  of  banks  and  corporations  generally,  and  their 
powers  and  mode  of  charter.  The  Legislature 
was  in  those  days  incessantly  besieged  for  charters 
for  all  sorts  of  purposes,  and  gross  abuses  un 
doubtedly  prevailed  in  their  grant.  Moreover,  the 
most  extravagant  claims  for  perpetual  rights  there 
under  were  made  under  the  doctrine  of  the  Dart 
mouth  College  case.  Upon  motion  of  Mr.  Meredith, 
the  convention  had  voted  by  substantial  majorities 
not  only  "  that  contracts  made  on  the  faith  of  the 
commonwealth  are  and  of  right  ought  to  be  in 
violable,"  but  further  "  that  a  charter  duly  granted 
by  act  of  Assembly  is,  when  accepted,  a  contract 
with  the  parties  to  whom  the  grant  is  made." 
The  latter  clause  was  of  course  opposed  by  Mr. 
Ingersoll,  but  in  a  speech  on  bank  charters  he 
argued  with  great  elaboration  that  they  in  any 
event  are  entirely  excluded  from  any  such  doc 
trine.  After  arguing  against  the  whole  doctrine 
of  the  Dartmouth  College  case,  he  contended  that, 
even  admitting  it  true,  banks  stand  on  an  entirely 
different  ground,  for  they  exercise  a  public  organic 
function  and  constitute  a  part  of  the  State's  ma 
chinery,  which  must  necessarily  be  within  its 
control.  His  argument  upon  this  subject  was 
evidently  prepared  with  care,  and  was  very  closely 
199 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

reasoned.  Some  of  the  same  discussion  was  con 
tained  in  his  minority  report  from  the  Committee 
on  Currency  and  Corporations,  which  he  had  pre 
sented  at  an  earlier  date.  This  report  took  strong 
ground  against  inconvertible  paper  money. 

"The  effort,"  it  said,  "to  coin  money  out  of  paper  is 
as  absurd  as  alchymy.  Nothing  can  make  a  promise  on 
paper  to  pay  a  dollar,  equal  to  the  actual  payment  of  a 
dollar  :  and,  whenever  the  promise  is  by  law  made  equal 
to  the  fact,  the  promiser  thus  privileged  unjustly  gains  at 
the  expense  of  all  others,  not  so  privileged.  .  .  .  All 
paper,  not  immediately  convertible  into  coin,  is  of  no 
value,  and  its  credit  is  merely  fictitious.  The  use  of  it  is 
like  substituting  ardent  spirits  for  solid  food,  as  the  suste 
nance  of  life.  It  intoxicates  and  ruins.  .  .  .  It  is  a  gross 
delusion,  of  which  it  is  high  time  to  disabuse  the  public, 
that  our  banking  system  is  the  spring  of  those  rapid  im 
provements  and  advances  in  commerce,  manufactures, 
and  the  useful  arts,  which  distinguish  England  and  the 
United  States,  beyond  all  other  countries.  The  parentage 
of  these  improvements  is  liberty  united  with  labor.  Credit 
can  but  lend,  while  industry  always  gives.  And  bank 
credit  never  even  lends  without  incumbering  its  debtors 
with  mortgages  and  hypothecations.  The  goods,  towns, 
roads,  canals,  and  other  creations,  which  we  too  often 
ascribe  to  credit,  are  really  due  to  work,  to  that  incessant 
labor  which  freemen  delight  in,  whose  chief  pleasure  is 
constant  employment.  All  banks  might  be  struck  from 
existence  without  disadvantage  to  it.  The  aid  they  afford 
to  enterprise  is  always  incumbered  with  onerous  securities, 
quickly  and  mercilessly  exacted.  Individual  assistance, 
200 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

by  loans  from  capitalists,  would  be  much  more  service 
able.  Bank  resources  cannot  be  greater  than  the  aggre 
gate  means  of  the  community,  and  all  capitalists  would 
be  lenders,  if  banks  were  not  privileged  to  monopolise 
loans.  They  make  a  specious  credit,  the  counterfeit  of 
capital,  a  sort  of  volcanic  capital,  always  on  the  point  of 
explosion,  every  time  it  bursts,  diminishing  confidence  in 
banks,  which  must  soon  be  altogether  exhausted  of  credit 
with  all  who  take  any  heed  from  experience.  There  are 
few  now  living  who  have  not  had  more  than  one  serious 
warning,  that  discount  loans  cost  more,  and  yield  less, 
than  individual  loans,  and  that  instead  of  being  a  succour, 
they  are  fetters  to  enterprise." 


The  recommendations  of  the  report  were  to 
limit  the  capital  of  banks ;  to  make  their  charters 
always  open  to  alteration  or  repeal  by  law ;  to 
limit  their  right  to  issue  or  discount  notes;  to 
render  all  stockholders  personally  responsible; 
and  to  forbid  preferences  by  insolvent  debtors  in 
favor  of  banks.  These  recommendations  and  the 
views  expressed  in  the  report  were  gall  and  worm 
wood  to  the  pro-bank  members,  who  were  satu 
rated  with  the  panicky  terrors  incident  to  their 
class  in  a  time  of  money  disturbance.  In  every 
word  of  the  report  their  terrorized  imaginations 
conjured  up  a  "  mob"  and  a  French  Revolution. 
Accordingly,  a  motion  to  print  both  the  majority 
and  minority  reports  was  voted  down,  after  an 
excited  debate,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Stevens 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

denounced  the  minority  report  in  a  coarse  and 
characteristic  speech,  and  used  such  terms  as 
"  raw  Irishmen,"  "  imported  patriots,"  "  wild  bulls," 
"  Jack  Cades,"  and  "  purlieus  of  polluted  cities." 

All  these  terms  were  so  plainly  pointed  at  the 
author  of  the  report  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  called  for 
an  explanation,  and  Mr.  Stevens  replied  that  he 
did  not  mean  to  be  personal.  Though  the  report 
was  thus  refused  publication  and  was  violently 
abused  by  all  bank  and  corporation  men,  yet  it 
was  very  widely  printed  all  over  the  country,  and 
some  of  its  recommendations  were  placed  in  our 
organic  law.  I  presume  that  it  can  hardly  be 
questioned  that  the  very  valuable  provision  of  the 
constitutional  amendments  of  1838,  that  all  bank 
charters  should  contain  a  clause  reserving  to  the 
Legislature  the  right  to  alter  or  revoke  them,  was 
largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  this 
report  and  on  the  floor  of  the  convention.  Simi 
lar  provisions  have  since  been  made  in  other  States, 
and  our  present  constitution  contains  a  still  wider 
provision  upon  the  same  subject. 

Many  other  subjects  were  discussed  by  Mr. 
Ingersoll  in  the  convention,  but  I  shall  close  my 
examination  of  this  portion  of  his  history  with  a 
couple  of  letters  from  him  to  Mr.  Gilpin,  which 
will  admirably  show  his  intimate  feelings  in  re 
gard  to  some  of  the  proceedings  of  the  conven 
tion  : 

202 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  PHILADA.  Dec  20.  37 

"DEAR  SIR, — I  send  you  by  this  mail  an  extract  from 
my  last  speech,  delivered  because  I  was  overurged  and 
tormented  to  take  up  Sergeant's  gauntlet  flung  on  the 
floor  cum  ira — for  my  mind  is,  has  been  and  will  be  ab 
sorbed  by  the  great  question  at  hand  but  not  yet  before 
us — on  the  repeal  of  charters.  We  shall  beat  them  in  all 
but  votes.  Whether  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  write  out  what 
was  only  the  preliminary  speech  I  don't  know.  It  is  a 
terrible  labor  :  and  really  for  the  last  3  days  at  Harrisburg 
and  the  first  3  weeks  here  we  have  been  obliged  to  sleep 
on  our  arms  and  be  booted  and  spurred  all  day  long  for  a 
melee.  I  have  therefore  published  driblets  of  it — that 
now  sent  to  you  being  the  second. 

Soon  after  we  came  here  from  Harrisburg,  Sergeant  in 
conversation  with  an  active  politician  here — I  know  the 
fact — was  told  that  Harrison  is  to  yield  to  Clay.  After 
objecting  to  that  change  but  yielding  a  little,  he  began  to 
question  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  for  a  Vicep.  and  at 
last  put  the  point  plump — what  are  you  going  to  do  with 
me  ?  To  which  he  reed,  an  answer  that  has  caused  us 
already  three  weeks  of  the  coarsest  and  fiercest  party 
debate,  for  our  President  came  next  day  so  distempered 
that  he  vented  it  like  thunder  on  the  first  word  of  the 
first  speaker  that  fell  in  his  way.  With  eyes  starting  from 
their  sockets,  face  like  scarlet,  gestures  the  wildest  and 
words  the  hardest,  he  screamed  till  his  voice  disappeared, 
and  was  of  course  so  much  ashamed  of  it  afterwards  that 
when,  after  the  cooling  influences  of  a  fortnight  I  bore  up, 
as  he  saw  tompions  out,  quietly  taking  the  weather  gage 
for  a  broadside,  he  started  up  from  the  clerk's  table  where 
he  was  sitting,  and  in  the  softest  tones  swallowed  all  his 
words,  could  not  recollect  them,  softened  them — in  short 
203 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

saved  himself  from  all  but  a  shot  over  his  quarter  to  mark, 
as  I  understand  even  his  own  adherents  in  the  gallery  did 
by  a  buzz  sufficiently  audible,  that  he  hauled  down  the 
red  and  hoisted  the  white  flag  just  in  the  nick  of  time. 
Five  or  six  lawyers  of  our  cohort  have  deserted  since  we 
came  to  Philadelphia,  and  I  should  not  be  surprised  if 
more  were  to  go. 

"I  have  as  you  suppose  a  volume  of  your  Tacitus 
which  I  still  hope  to  read  :  but  until  this  Convention  ends 
or  at  least  the  tornado  now  distracting  it ;  literature,  so 
ciety,  conviviality,  all  but  sheer  hard  politics  is  out  of  the 

question." 

"  PHILADA  Jan  i  1838 

"  DEAR  SIR, — I  don't  know  whether  you  have  seen  the 
other  published  extract  of  my  last  speech,  not  that  I  sent 
you,  which  contains  some  curious  particulars  extracted 
from  a  letter  dated  June  1812  from  old  Mr.  Adams  to  the 
late  Dr.  Rush.  I  do  not  think  it  has  appeared  in  the 
Globe  or  any  other  Washington  paper,  tho'  in  my  appre 
hension  well  deserving  dissemination  as  a  very  comfort 
able  as  well  as  curious  bit  of  the  philosophy  of  history.  It 
is  moreover  my  last  (except  one,  if  I  resolve  to  publish 
that),  as  since  the  receipt  of  your  late  letter  I  have  been 
near  executing  a  design,  ruminated  for  some  time,  of  with 
drawing  from  the  excitement  of  public  life,  to  mind  my 
business  a  little — -utterly  neglected  for  some  months,  not 
only  professional  but  private  and  even  the  most  indispen 
sable  family  concerns.  I  have  been  a  slave  and  I  long 
for  emancipation.  My  resignation  as  member  of  the  Con 
vention  was  to  have  been  presented  this  morning,  but  that 
I  have  been  prevailed  upon  by  strong  expostulations  of 
our  democratic  friends  not  to  cause  a  special  election,  in 
which  the  last  committee  who  waited  on  me  to  remonstrate 
204 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

against  my  design,  late  last  night,  Benj.  Mifflin  and  John 
Horn,  say  a  federalist  would  be  chosen  to  succeed  me  by 
a  majority  of  at  least  one  thousand  !  I  had  made  up  my 
mind,  as  I  told  them,  not  to  vacate  my  seat,  from  that 
apprehension,  but  I  am  heartily  tired  and  disgusted,  and 
mere  inactive  membership  is  all  I  shall  submit  to.  You 
will  see  my  name  to  the  invitation  for  the  8th  but  I  took 
no  part,  shall  not  attend,  have  refused  to  be  their  orator, 
and  mean  to  fall  back  on  Tacitus  and  other  more  rational 
occupation  than  this  abominable  politics,  in  which,  as  Mr. 
Livingston  used  to  say,  not  only  is  the  play  not  worth  the 
candle,  but  the  annoyances  from  one's  own  friends  are 
altogether  insufferable.  The  immediate  cause  of  my  dis 
content,  which  you  may  have  seen  has  been  long  brewing, 
is  this  : — Ever  since  the  question  of  the  right  to  repeal 
charters  was  moved  a  few  days  before  we  left  Harrisburg, 
I  have  been,  (resisting  continual  importunity  to  speak 
unprepared)  at  work  almost  every  day  before  light  and 
constantly,  casting  aside  everything  else,  arming  to  the 
teeth  for  this  greatest  of  issues  ;  and  tho'  not  as  completely 
ready  as  I  should  like  to  be,  yet  more  so,  I  venture  to  say, 
than  any  other  man — and  just  when  about  to  make  an 
argument  on  which  I  am  anxious  to  stake  my  all  what  do 
the  democratic  members  of  Convention,  under  the  lead  of 
Earle  and  Brown,  uniting  with  the  dolts  &  boobies  of  all 
parties — always  a  large  majority — but  pass  a  regulation 
that  no  member  shall  speak  more  than  an  hour  at  a  time, 
so  that  after  poor  Woodward  and  I,  the  only  ones  of  our 
side  who  can  draw  this  bow  at  all,  tried  to  speak  under 
that  vile  rule,  the  upshot  was  his  failure  by  trying  to  con 
dense  what  cannot  be  crushed  into  an  hour,  and  my 
speaking  less  than  a  quarter  of  my  argument  when,  tho' 
possibly  I  might  have  got  leave  to  go  on,  yet  scorning  to 
205 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

speak  by  permission,  I  declared  that  I  could  not  submit  to 
such  murder,  and  gave  up,  saying  to  all  who  chose  to 
hear  it — not  as  part  of  the  speech,  but  in  personal  conver 
sation — that  I  wd.  not  submit  to  remain  a  member  of  a 
body  in  which  my  own  party  thus  fettered  me,  that  I  wd. 
retire  (as  I  did  that  day — Friday)  take  till  to-day  to  deter 
mine,  and  this  morning,  unless  I  should  think  better 
of  it,  send  in  my  resignation.  The  certain  result  of  the 
special  election  to  supply  my  place,  together  with  as  I  am 
told  the  chuckling  of  the  federalists  at  the  prospect,  have 
so  far  fettered  me  again,  that  I  can  not  do  what  I  am 
satisfied  would  be  right  and  popular  so  far  as  I  am  alone 
concerned.  But  as  far  as  a  retired  and  quiet  spring  sum 
mer  and  autumn,  taking  no  further,  active,  part  in  the 
Convention  or  politics,  so  far  at  any  rate,  I  am  my  own 
master.  I  incline  to  think  that  I  shall  publish  the  sup 
pressed  speech,  but  at  my  leisure,  sometime  hence  but 
that  will  be  all  my  contribution  to  politics  and  that  is  of 
the  higher  order — To  me  amusements  this  winter,  of 
which  I  have  denied  myself  all,  to  be  dedicated  to  this 
unlucky  speech,  a  long  journey  southwest  in  the  spring, 
and  Foresthill  quietly  in  the  summer  are  my  pleasant, 
present  dreams.  I  have  taken  up  Tacitus  once  more  in 
the  early  morning — recommencing  with  that  capital  por 
trait  of  Petronius,  arbiter  elegantiae — and  les  Memoires 
d'un  homme  d'Etat  in  the  evening,  with  a  gusto  that  is  as 
healthful  as  it  is  delightful  :  and  this  very  day  will  be  de 
voted,  even  while  at  my  seat  in  Convention,  to  preparing 
my  much  too  long  neglected  letter  for  the  Atty.  Genl. 
about  my  untoward  rebuff*  by  that  little  Wolf  rejecting 


I  do  not  know  to  what  this  refers. 
206 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  $2000  of  my  debt — yes  debt,  another  bondage.     Let 
me  look  to  that,  a  little,  and  hang  the  scurvy  politics." 


During  the  early  sessions  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  Mr.  Ingersoll's  name  was  proposed  in 
several  papers  for  the  Governorship,  and  at  about 
the  same  time  he  was  nominated  for  Congress  in 
the  Third  District  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the 
death  of  Mr.  Harper. 

This  district  included  the  Northern  Liberties, 
Kensington,  Spring  Garden,  and  a  few  smaller 
outlying  districts  and  townships  of  the  county  of 
Philadelphia.  The  opposing  nominee  was  Charles 
Naylor,  and  the  campaign  was  a  very  active  and 
bitter  one.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  attacked  in  the 
press  in  the  most  violent  way,  and  all  possible  and 
impossible  stories  were  raked  up  against  him. 
The  old  "  would-have-been-a-tory"  accusation  had 
to  be  answered  and  explained.  His  dispute  with 
the  Treasury  over  his  accounts  as  District  Attor 
ney  was  misrepresented,  and  he  was  called  a  de 
faulter,  but  this  charge  he  was  fortunately  able  to 
answer  by  the  result  of  the  public  trial  he  had  in 
sisted  upon,  and  by  the  letter  of  the  jury  which  had 
heard  the  case.  That  old  and  jaded  war-horse  of 
political  slander,  the  charge  of  having  caused  the 
arrest  of  a  woman  for  debt,  was  brought  out 
against  him,  but  the  original  record  of  the  sheriff's 
return  in  this  unhappy  lady's  case  cleared  up  this 
207 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

story.  It  was  charged  that  he  had  in  1832  "be 
trayed  the  cause  of  the  manufacturers," — a  frequent 
sin  of  public  men,  if  the  protected  interests  are 
to  be  believed ;  but  this  story  was  met  by  some 
correspondence  of  the  period.  And  the  Whigs 
appear  to  have  been  very  severe  upon  him — a 
hard-money  man — for  having  (as  they  charged) 
recently  bought  a  cow  and  given  a  note  for  the 
amount. 

On  the  Democratic  side  the  contest  was  an 
nounced  to  be  that  of  "  Ingersoll  and  hard  money 
against  shin-plaster  Whiggery."  The  Pennsylva- 
nian  defiantly  asked,  "  What  are  the  political 
opinions  of  Charles  Naylor  ?  Does  anybody  know 
— can  anybody  tell  ?"  and  summed  up  by  say 
ing  that  against  Mr.  Ingersoll,  the  HARD-MONEY 
DEMOCRAT,  was  set  up  Naylor,  "  the  candidate  of 
the  BANK  WHIGS,  the  craped  eagle  gentry,  who 
were  defeated  in  1834  and  1836  .  .  .  who  are 
justly  regarded  as  Shin-Plaster  or  PAPER- MONEY 
WHIGS,  and  whose  highest  principle  is  strict  obe 
dience  to  the  orders  of  '  BIDDLE  AND  THE  BANK.'  " 
Sketches  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  life  and  public  services 
were  printed  at  length,  and  at  least  one  letter  from 
a  private  person  told  the  public  how  kindly  the 
Democratic  candidate  had  some  years  before  aided 
him  in  establishing  himself  in  business.  This 
letter  was  printed  in  German  and  in  English,  and 
was  from  a  German,  who  closed  by  saying  that 
208 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

any  one  might  converse  with  him  upon  the  subject 
at  his  residence,  the  "  Drei  Tonnen  Gasthof,"  in 
Third  Street  between  Callowhill  and  Vine. 

The  intense  interest  taken  in  the  election  was 
shown  in  the  result ;  for,  though  the  vote  at  special 
elections  generally  falls  off,  yet  in  this  instance 
both  candidates  received  considerably  more  votes 
than  the  candidates  for  the  same  office  had  re 
ceived  at  the  Congressional  election  in  the  fall  of 
1836.  Mr.  Naylor  was  successful  by  about  two 
hundred  and  thirty  majority,  carrying  nearly  all 
the  separate  districts  except  Kensington,  where 
Mr.  Ingersoll  received  nearly  two  votes  to  one  for 
his  opponent.  The  day  after  the  election  Mr. 
Ingersoll  published  a  letter,  in  which  he  said, — 

"  .  .  .  To  the  many  requests  I  received  by  numerous 
letters  at  Harrisburg  to  become  your  candidate  for  Con 
gress,  my  answer  was,  that  I  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
decline  such  a  contest  in  the  present  crisis,  any  more  than 
I  would  to  refuse  turning  out  to  defend  my  country  if 
invaded  by  enemies.  Accepting,  therefore,  the  unsought 
and  perilous  nomination,  I  left  other  duties  to  attend  the 
canvass  as  a  duty,  and  you  will  say  that  I  went  through  it 
with  unintermitting,  unblenching,  and  unflinching  con 
stancy,  doing  and  bearing  everything  I  could.  We  have 
been  defeated  ;  owing  to  your  confidence,  which  from 
first  to  last  I  never  felt,  and  to  the  superior  means  and 
method  of  our  opponents.  I  have  taken  all  occasions  for 
some  time  to  warn  the  democracy  of  numbers,  that  a  long 
and  desperate  struggle  is  to  rage  with  the  upstart  aristoc- 

14  209 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

racy  of  paper  money,  privilege,  and  monopoly.  Yester 
day's  Special  Election  was  but  the  skirmish  to  bring  on 
the  general  engagement,  which  will  be  fought  with  unex 
ampled  fury  between  the  antagonist  principles  and  parties, 
never  to  cease  till  either  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is 
established,  or  the  predominance  of  the  vulgar  aristocracy 
is  made  part  and  lot  of  American  republicanism.  In  the 
first  set-to,  you  put  me  forward  in  a  conspicuous  place, 
where  I  endeavored  to  do  my  best.  We  are  discomfited, 
but,  I  trust,  not  dismayed  ;  .  .  .  Although  beaten,  we  are 
united — never  was  the  democracy  of  Pennsylvania  more 
so,  or  more  in  need  of  being  so." 


Mr.  Ingersoll's  more  intimate  feelings  in  regard 
to  the  election  were  contained  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Gilpin,  in  which,  after  quoting  the  opinion  of  some 
friend  that  his  defeat  was  owing  to  "  traitors,"  he 
went  on, — 

"  I  know  the  traitors,  but  they  did  not  prevent  my  elec 
tion.  It  might  have  been  carried  as  easily  as  kiss  my 
hand,  and  was  lost  exactly  as  I  told  you  and  many  others 
it  would  be — for  want  of  discipline.  We  had  plenty  of 
votes  and  all  the  raw  material  of  success  :  but,  whenever 
we  meet,  I  will  tell  you  of  such  damnable  neglect  of  the 
simplest  organization  and  forecast  as  will  satisfy  you  how 
we  were  beaten.  So  much  the  worse  for  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
but  for  me  it  has  brought  such  reaction  of  popular  good 
will  exasperated  to  quite  a  pitch  of  endearment  that,  con 
nected  with  certain  doubts  I  always  had  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  experiment,  leaves  me  in  a  condition  of  gratification. 
210 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

I  expect  to  be  in  Washington  before  long,  and  then  we 
may  hold  large  discourse  looking  before  and  after." 


It  must  be  admitted  that  much  of  the  bandying 
of  epithets  which  has  been  quoted  is  not  inspiring, 
but  it  was  full  of  meaning.  The  contest  was  be 
tween  paper-money  Whigs  and  hard-money  Dem 
ocrats,  and  it  was  quite  an  allowable  exaggeration 
to  say  that  the  highest  principle  of  the  Whigs  was 
obedience  to  Biddle  and  the  bank.  We  must  not, 
under  the  rather  repellent  influence  of  such  horse- 
talk,  forget  that  Mr.  Biddle  and  the  institution  he 
had  ruled  over,  and  which  came  so  near  a  few 
years  later  to  being  reinstated,  had  wielded  powers 
of  a  stupendous  nature.  Not  only  in  the  realms 
of  finance  did  the  overgrown  power  of  the  bank 
reign  supreme,  but  it  and  its  president  revelled  in 
stupendous  plans  for  controlling  absolutely  the 
cotton  and  other  business  of  the  country,  and  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  it  had  a  dangerous  influence 
in  politics. 

Indeed,  to  put  it  in  this  language  is  making  the 
case  vastly  less  strong  than  it  is,  for  the  bank 
showed  a  stupendous  and  nearly  controlling  polit 
ical  power  in  the  contest  with  Jackson,  and  the 
victory  over  it  was  obtained  only  after  the  utmost 
difficulty.  Probably  the  bank  would  have  suc 
ceeded  had  the  Democrats  been  led  by  a  less 
popular  or  less  determined  leader  than  Jackson ; 

211 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  certainly  had  Clay  been  elected  in  that  mem 
orable  contest  of  1832  the  power  of  the  vast 
moneyed  institution  would  have  been  a  serious 
menace. 

We  see  enough  to-day  of  the  corrupting  and 
dangerous  influence  of  corporations  in  politics  to 
know  that  the  existence  of  a  single  enormous  in 
stitution  which  extended  its  operations  over  the 
whole  country  would  have  been  fraught  with  the 
greatest  danger.  That  these  bodies  have  come  in 
time  to  exert  so  powerful  an  influence  upon  legisla 
tion  and  in  politics  generally  as  they  do  is  no  reason 
why  public  men  sixty  years  ago  should  not  have 
done  their  utmost  to  restrain  them ;  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  United  States  Bank  was  rela 
tively  of  far  greater  power  than  any  corporation 
to-day.  It  towered  supreme  above  all  others  then 
existing,  and  had  no  possible  competitor,  while  its 
extremely  close  relations  to  the  government  and 
its  system  of  branches  scattered  over  the  country 
gave  it  a  power  of  united  action  from  one  end  of 
the  land  to  the  other,  such  as  does  not  exist  even 
in  our  to-day's  midsummer  ripeness  of  corporation 
rule.  Some  writers  have  denied  its  interference  in 
politics,  but  historians  will  certainly  admit  it, 
whatever  partisan  writers  may  do.  It  was  per 
sistently  and  for  years  in  the  habit  of  retaining 
leading  public  men  as  its  counsel,  and  many  of 
them  received  its  favors  as  borrowers.  And  it 

212 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

cannot  be  doubted  that  those  public  men  who 
dared  oppose  it  came  to  suffer  for  their  audacity. 

In  Mr.  Ingersoll's  own  immediate  family  there 
was  an  instance  of  this  kind.  One  of  his  sons, 
John,  had  gone  South,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1837 
moved  to  Natchez  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
Humphreys,  of  the  firm  of  Bevan  &  Humphreys, 
of  Philadelphia.  The  purpose  of  his  removal  was 
to  take  charge — to  use  Mr.  Humphreys's  words — • 
"of  my  Liverpool  house,  Humphreys  &  Biddle;" 
and  this  latter  house  was  to  give  him  a  credit, 
confirmed  by  the  United  States  Bank,  to  draw 
upon  the  Liverpool  firm.  It  was  stated  in  the 
newspaper  correspondence  which  arose  later  that 
Mr.  Nicholas  Biddle  was  very  active  in  all  this. 

Upon  the  issuing  of  the  letter  of  credit,  guaran 
teed  by  the  bank,  Mr.  Ingersoll  moved  to  Natchez. 
The  course  of  business  was  that  he  gave  planters 
some  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  cotton,  for 
which  he  received  the  bills  of  lading  and  sent 
them  and  the  cotton  to  the  London  firm.  The 
idea  was  that  cotton  was  bound  to  increase  in 
price,  and  in  this  way  the  planter  could  get  enough 
cash  to  enable  him  to  delay  the  sale  of  his  cotton 
and  secure  the  better  price.  This  course  of  busi 
ness  was  carried  on  for  a  year,  and  in  October, 
1838,  Mr.  Ingersoll,  having  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  his  agency  had  been  revoked,  published  a 
notice  to  the  effect  that  he  was  still  ready  to  make 
213 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  advances.  To  this  Bevan  &  Humphreys  sud 
denly  replied  in  December,  evidently  without  any 
notice  to  him,  that  he  was  not  their  agent  and  had 
no  authority  in  the  matter. 

In  due  time  Humphreys  &  Biddle  published  a 
like  card  in  London,  which  found  its  way  into  the 
American  papers.  This  led  to  a  bitter  contro 
versy,  in  which  Mr.  John  Ingersoll  showed  con 
clusively  that  his  agency  in  the  matter  had  been 
recognized  by  the  London  firm  within  eight  days 
of  their  published  notice  denying  his  agency  ;  and 
his  charge  was  that  they  were  forced  to  make  the 
second  publication  by  the  United  States  Bank. 
He  was  informed  by  Mr.  Cabot  (the  active  mem 
ber  of  the  Philadelphia  firm)  that  the  notice  pub 
lished  in  Philadelphia  denying  his  agency  had 
been  written  by  Mr.  Nicholas  Biddle,  and  "  as  to 
the  much  controverted  subject  of  the  illicit  con 
nection  of  Humphreys  &  Biddle  and  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States,"  he  intimated  that  it  was  not 
likely  that  that  firm  had  the  capital  to  hold  two 
hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton  a  whole  season, 
and  further  that  he  had  evidence  in  his  possession 
upon  that  point. 

The  controversy46  ended  here,  apparently.  It 
may  have  its  value  as  an  evidence  of  the  power 
which  the  officers  of  the  bank  at  least  attempted 
to  exercise  in  business  affairs,  and  what  their 
power  might  have  become  had  the  bank  been  re- 
214 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

chartered.  No  reason  appears  why  John  Ingersoll 
was  treated  as  he  was  in  the  matter :  all  intention 
to  charge  him  with  any  impropriety  was  denied 
by  those  who  so  suddenly  harmed  him,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  his  father's 
political  course  was  at  least  part  of  the  cause  which 
influenced  them. 

At  the  time  when  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  nominated 
and  defeated  for  Congress  at  the  special  election 
in  1837,  the  public  men  of  the  country  had  before 
them  a  most  difficult  problem  to  arrange  the  gov 
ernment's  finances.  The  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  the  experience 
with  the  State  banks  as  aids  in  the  Federal  finances 
had  been  most  disastrous.  The  vast  money  re 
ceipts  and  payments  of  the  government  necessi 
tated  some  financial  branch,  and  it  was  an  open 
question  what  this  should  be.  After  a  great  deal 
of  dispute  and  difficulty,  and  only  in  the  last  year 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  the  problem 
was  solved  by  what  is  known  as  the  Sub- 
Treasury. 

This  still  existing  system  has  been  regarded  as 
the  most  successful  legislative  device  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren's  administration,  and  writers  generally  have 
extolled  him  for  its  creation.  Undoubtedly,  great 
credit  is  due  him,  and,  whether  he  was  the  origi 
nator  of  the  plan  or  not,  he  was  certainly  the  chief 
force  in  bringing  about  its  adoption.  The  credit 
215 


CHARLES   JARED  INGERSOLL 

of  the  conception  has  been  claimed  almost  exclu 
sively  for  him,  while  von  Hoist,  on  the  other 
hand,  says  that  it  was  proposed  in  Congress  as 
early  as  1834.  Probably  the  truth  is  that,  like 
most  new  things,  it  had  been  floating  more  or  less 
vaguely  in  many  minds  for  some  years.  Thus,  in 
a  speech  in  Independence  Square  as  early  as  Octo 
ber  29,  1832,  Mr.  Ingersoll  said,  "  I  have  some 
reason  to  know  that  Mr.  Jefferson  suggested  to  the 
late  Mr.  Dallas  some  such  scheme  as  a  Treasury 
Bank  like  that  suggested  by  General  Jackson  in 
one  of  his  late  messages  to  Congress." 

There  is  clear  proof  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  the 
great  outlines  of  the  Sub-Treasury  plan  pretty 
clearly  in  his  mind  some  three  months  before  Mr. 
Van  Buren  first  publicly  recommended  it  in  his 
message  to  Congress  at  the  special  session  in 
September,  1837.  On  June  13  of  that  year,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  published  in  the  Pennsylvanian  a  letter 
to  the  people  of  the  Third  Congressional  District, 
in  which  he  clearly  laid  down  and  advocated  the 
plan  of  the  Sub-Treasury.  He  proposed,  he 
wrote  in  this  letter,  to  treat  first  of  the  effects  of 
American  banking  on  manufactures  and  on  labor 
and  industry;  and,  "secondly,"  he  went  on,  "I 
will  venture  to  suggest  what  appears  to  me  to  be 
a  simple  and  effectual  plan  for  restoring  and  pre 
serving  coin  circulation  without  any  bank  at  all, 
altogether  separating  State  affairs  from  bank  affairs 
216 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  leaving  each  to  its  own  orbit  and  operation." 
After  treating  the  first  subject,  he  went  on, — 

"SECONDLY. — What,  then,  is  the  simple  and  effectual 
plan  for  restoring  and  preserving  coin  circulation,  without 
any  bank  at  all ;  the  remedy  for  state  and  national  evils 
thus  but  faintly  depictured  ;  which  in  the  beginning  of 
this  letter,  I  promised  to  submit  ? 

"The  option  is  between  state  banks,  a  national  bank, 
whether  of  discount  or  a  treasury  bank,  and,  (discarding 
all  banks)  by  some  other  method. 

"Of  state  banks  nothing  more  need  be  added  to  what 
has  been  the  whole  strain  of  this  view.  My  very  humble 
and  private  opinion  has  never  been  withheld  during  the 
use  made  of  them  since  the  removal  of  the  public  deposites 
from  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  that  state  banks  of 
discount  and  circulation  never  would  answer  the  constitu 
tional  purposes  of  the  federal  government.  I  think  they 
have  altogether  failed  ;  and  shall  consider  them  as  out  of 
the  question. 

"  I  believe  when  the  late  Mr.  Dallas  proposed  the  bank 
of  the  United  States  in  1814-15,  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  pref 
erence  was  for  a  Treasury  bank  ;  and  I  never  could  see 
any  objection  to  such  a  bank  that  does  not  apply  to  an 
incorporated  discount  bank  of  the  United  States.  We 
have  all  seen  the  late  bank  defy  and  well  nigh  defeat  the 
government  :  and  arguing  from  what  it  did  as  an  an 
tagonist  to  what  it  might  do  as  the  instrument  of  an  ill 
disposed  Executive,  I  cannot  understand  how  a  treasury 
bank  would  be  a  more  formidable  presidential  or  party 
engine  than  such  a  bank  as  the  late  bank  of  the  United 
States.  But  Mr.  Madison  and  others  of  our  wisest  and 
best  men  having  set  the  seal  of  their  condemnation  on  a 
217 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Treasury  bank,  such  an  institution  has  been  discredited, 
and  it  is  not  for  me  to  attempt  its  establishment  in  public 
good  will.  .  .  . 

"  The  main  part  of  such  a  plan,  the  basis  of  it,  may  be 
very  simple  and  is  perfectly  feasible.  It  is  but  to  create 
by  act  of  congress  so  many  commissioners  or  agents  at 
such  places  as  may  be  deemed  necessary,  empowered  to 
receive,  keep  and  pay  the  public  funds.  From  twenty  to 
thirty  such  commissioners  at  proper  positions  would  per 
form  without  difficulty  all  those  duties,  i.  They  could 
receive,  2.  they  could  keep,  and  3.  they  could  pay,  in 
gold  and  silver,  or  by  equivalent  credits,  all  the  income  and 
expenditures  of  government :  and  without  any  bank  in 
strumentality  whatever.  Congress  should  build  them 
houses  for  safe  keeping  the  money,  and  take  from  them 
adequate  security  for  faithful  conduct  in  their  offices. 

"  Thus  together  with  the  mints,  a  coin  circulation  would 
be  established  in  the  operations  of  government.  Is  the 
federal  government  bound  to  go  further  ?  Has  it  consti 
tutional  authority  to  do  more?  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion 
was,  I  believe,  that  the  states  should  surrender  to  the 
United  States  the  regulation  of  currency  as  well  as  the 
coinage  of  money  ;  and  no  more  urgent  time  than  the 
present  could  be  found  to  make  that  surrender  should  it 
be  deemed  proper. 

"  But,  if  not,  and  at  any  rate  should  it  be  thought  ad 
visable  and  constitutional  for  congress,  as  now  empow 
ered,  to  regulate  domestic  exchanges,  the  before  men 
tioned  commissioners  could  do  it  without  any  difficulty, 
but  such  as  inveterate  habit  and  opposition  might  give 
rise  to.  These  commissioners  being  authorised  by  act  of 
Congress  to  give  bills  of  exchange  on  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  on  payment  of  the  amount  of  such  bills  in  gold  or 
218 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

silver,  (or  unquestionable  equivalent,)  charging  no  more 
than  the  mere  cost  of  transportation  from  where  the  bill 
of  exchange  is  given  to  where  it  would  be  payable,  might 
thus  furnish  bills  of  exchange,  having  great  advantages 
over  mercantile  or  bank  bills  of  exchange,  viz  :  that  being 
drawn  on,  and  after  actual  deposit  of  the  hard  money, 
there  would  be  no  risque  of  damages,  and  could  be  no 
failure  of  payment. 

"  Some  such  simple  plan,  it  is  with  deference  submitted, 
is  possible  and  would  succeed." 


Mr.  Ingersoll  was  again  nominated  for  Congress 
by  the  Democrats  in  the  Third  District  at  the 
regular  election  in  the  fall  of  1838,  and  had  an 
other  spirited  canvass  with  Mr.  Naylor.  The  old 
accusations  were  brought  out  once  more,  and  he 
was  moreover  accused  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  of 
entertaining  Jacobinical  sentiments.  He  and  his 
party  maintained  that  he  had  in  reality  been 
elected  at  the  special  election  in  1837,  and  had 
been  defrauded  by  the  device  of  fictitious  names 
on  the  assessors'  lists,  and  they  feared  the  same 
practice  would  be  carried  out  again,  and  in  a 
speech  in  Spring  Garden,  on  September  13,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  advocated  the  use  of  force  at  the  coming 
election  in  certain  contingencies  as  the  only  effec 
tive  means  to  prevent  fraud  and  as  conducive  in 
the  end  to  fair  elections.  This  was  the  origin  of 
the  Advertiser's  accusation.  The  result,  on  the  face 
of  the  returns,  was  the  election  of  Mr.  Naylor  by 
219 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

about  seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred  majority, 
but  the  Democrats  maintained  that  gross  frauds 
had  been  perpetrated  against  them,  and  on  their 
motion  the  return  judges  threw  out  the  whole 
returns  from  the  Northern  Liberties,  and  the  result 
was  then  the  election  of  Mr.  Ingersoll.  Kensing 
ton  and  the  unincorporated  Northern  Liberties 
were  the  districts  in  which  he  obtained  his  major 
ity. 

There  were  two  sets  of  returns  this  year  as  to 
the  Philadelphia  members  of  the  Legislature  also, 
and  some  contest,  moreover,  over  the  Governor 
ship.  Troops  marched  to  Harrisburg,  and  party 
feeling  ran  very  high.  It  was  the  time  of  what 
has  been  called  the  Buckshot  War.  Both  Mr. 
Ingersoll  and  Mr.  Naylor  obtained  certificates  of 
election,  and  took  part  in  the  first  steps  of  the 
preliminary  organization  of  the  House  in  Decem 
ber,  1839.  Mr.  Ingersoll's  name  was  alone  on  the 
clerk's  roll,  but  during  the  contest  over  the  New 
Jersey  members  (before  organization  and  before 
Pennsylvania  had  been  called)  the  Whigs  managed 
to  admit  Mr.  Naylor  as  the  prima  facie  member, 
and  Mr.  Ingersoll  thus  found  himself  burdened 
with  a  contested  election.  He  spent  much  time 
and  trouble  in  the  production  of  evidence  before  a 
committee,  which  finally  reported  against  him  by 
a  single  vote.  A  mass  of  testimony  making  a 
book  of  five  hundred  and  forty  pages  was  taken, 

220 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

but  was,  of  course,  not  read  by  members.  He 
was  also  heard  in  his  own  behalf  before  the  House, 
and  his  contest  was  only  finally  disposed  of  near 
the  end  of  the  term,  January  15,  1841,  when  the 
House  resolved  by  a  small  majority  that  Mr. 
Naylor  was  entitled  to  the  seat. 

Before  this  date,  however,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  a 
member-elect  of  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress. 
He  had  been  again  nominated  in  the  summer  of 
1840,  and  Mr.  Naylor  against  him.  The  Demo 
crats  had  challenged  the  latter  to  stand  and 
make  the  old  fight  over  again,  alleging  that  the 
result  would  show  the  truth  of  their  charges  of 
fraud,  now  that  a  new  election  law  secured  an 
inspector  to  both  parties  in  every  precinct ;  but 
Mr.  Naylor  withdrew  after  a  few  weeks, — the 
Democrats  alleged  that  he  dared  not  face  the  con 
test,  now  that  the  opportunity  for  fraud  was  so 
much  reduced, — and  Mr.  Morton  McMichael  was 
nominated  in  his  place.  A  new  charge  was  made 
against  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  this  campaign,  that  he 
had  been  guilty  of  "  ordering  a  suit  of  clothes 
from  Paris."  This  charge  was  made  in  the  In 
quirer,  but  a  correspondent  criticised  the  paper  for 
making  a  charge  of  such  a  prying  nature,  and  the 
Pennsylvanian  gravely  explained  that  the  suit  had 
been  ordered  of  an  American  tailor  in  Paris,  who 
was  travelling  in  this  country  at  the  time.  The 
result  of  the  campaign  was  Mr.  Ingersoll's  election 

22 1 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

by  about  thirteen  hundred  majority;  and  this  is 
worthy  of  note  upon  the  question  of  the  alleged 
frauds,  for  the  elections  in  general  went  over 
whelmingly  against  the  Democrats,  and  they  even 
lost  Pennsylvania.  Many  years  later,  after  his  re 
tirement  from  public  affairs,  Mr.  Ingersoll  wrote, 
"  The  prevalent  impression  since  with  all  parties 
has  been  that  I  was  twice  defrauded  by  false  votes 
and  returns." 

During  the  campaign  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  ex 
plained  his  position  on  the  questions  of  slavery 
and  abolition.  Letters  upon  these  subjects  had 
been  addressed  to  him  by  abolition  societies  during 
the  special  election  in  1837,  and  he  had  been 
anxious  to  answer  them  at  length,  but  had  allowed 
himself  to  be  dissuaded  by  his  friends,  and  had 
finally  replied  that  he  would  answer  fully  at  any 
time  when  his  opponent  should  do  so.  This 
ended  the  matter  for  that  campaign,  but  the  same 
questions  were  again  asked  in  1838,  couched  in 
most  vague  and  general  language,  and  he  then  of 
his  own  motion  defined  his  position  at  length  in 
public  speeches.  In  1840  he  expressed  his  views 
in  a  public  letter,  after  he  had  vainly  endeavored 
to  induce  his  questioners  to  be  more  specific. 
What  these  views  were  will  appear  more  fully 
hereafter,  but  it  may  be  said  here  in  a  few  words 
that  he  stated  in  his  answer  that  he  disliked 
slavery,  and  thought  it  both  disreputable  and 

222 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

detrimental  in  a  community  like  ours,  but  was 
strongly  opposed  to  the  abolition  agitation ;  that 
he  was  opposed  to  abolition  by  Congress  in  the 
District  of  Columbia;  and  that,  though  he  re 
spected  the  sincere  abolitionist,  he  thought  "the 
worst  traitors  to  the  United  States  are  those  who 
for  factious  purposes  affect  abolitionism." 


223 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  in  Congress — His  District — On  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  and  Chairman  of  Foreign  Affairs — His 
Course  generally — The  Slavery  Question — How  the 
Problem  presented  itself  in  those  Days — The  Abolition 
ists  were  Disunionists — Mr.  Ingersoll' s  Speech  on  the 
Twenty-First  Rule — His  Course  on  the  Tariff — Tyler — 
The  Sub-Treasury — General  Jackson's  Fine — Conflicts 
with  Mr.  Adams. 

IT  was  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress  to  which 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  thus  elected,  and  he  was  also 
elected  successively  to  the  Twenty-Eighth,  Twenty- 
Ninth,  and  Thirtieth  Congresses.  He  seems  to  have 
narrowly  escaped  defeat  by  the  Native  American 
candidate  in  1844,  but  in  the  other  elections  he 
had  no  trouble.  His  district  was  originally  the 
Third  District,  and  comprised  all  of  the  county  of 
Philadelphia  except  East  and  West  Southwark, 
Moyamensing,  Passyunk,  Kingsessing,  Blockley, 
Penn  Township,  Germantown,  Roxborough,  and 
Bristol.  Under  the  apportionment  of  i843,47  its 
name  was  changed  to  the  "  Fourth,"  and  it  was 
made  to  consist  of  Kensington,  North  and  South 
Penn,  Roxborough,  Germantown,  Bristol,  unincor- 


CHAPTER    VII. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  in  Congress — His  District  —On  the  Judiciary 

Committee,    and    Chairman    of     Foreign    Affairs— His 

Course    generally — The    Slavery    Question — How    the 

Problem  presented  st*«If  in  th^se  Days — -The  Abolition- 

--Mr,    Ingersoll's  Speech  on  the 

TV--  Rule — His  Course  on  the  Tariff — Tyler — 

The  Sub-Treasury — General  Jackson's  Fine — Conflicts 
with  Mr.  Adams, 

IT  was  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress  to  which 
Mr.  Ingersoll  was  thus  elected,  and  he  was  also 
elected  successively  to  the  Twenty-Eighth,  Twenty- 
Ninth, 'and  Thirtieth  Congresses,  He  seems  to  have 
narrowly  escaped  defeat  by  the  Native  American 
candidate  in  1844,  but  in  the  other  elections  he 
had  no  trouble.  His  disui*  i  was  originally  the 
Third  District,  and  L  all  of  the  county  of 

Philadelphia  except  East  and  West  Southwark, 
Moyamensing,  Passyunk,  Kingsessing,  Blockley, 
Perm  Township,  Germantown,  Roxborough,  and 
Bristol.  Under  the  apportionment  of  1843,^  ^s 
name  was  changed  to  the  "  Fourth,"  and  it  was 
made  to  consist  of  Kensington,  North  and  South 
I'Vmi,  Roxborough,  Germantown,  Bn-'toi,  unincor- 


CHARLES   JARED   TNGERSOLL 

porated  Northern  Liberties,  Oxford,  Lower  Dublin, 
Byberry  and  Moreland,  Blockley,  West  Philadel 
phia,  and  Kingsessing. 

Though  the  evidence  upon  the  subject  is  rather 
meagre,  yet  I  do  not  think  that  Mr.  Ingersoil  was, 
as  a  rule,  actively  concerned  in  the  management  of 
practical  politics.  He  was  occasionally  active  in 
questions  of  patronage,  but  my  impression  is  that 
his  time  was  far  less  taken  up  by  these  matters  than 
was  that  of  most  public  men.  On  one  occasion,  in 
the  fall  of  1837,  I  find  that  he  was  called  home 
from  Washington  "  to  save  the  ticket,"  and  wrote 
Mr.  Gilpin  as  follows  : 

"  I  find  it  [the  ticket]  in  great  danger  even  in  Philadel 
phia  County  from  selfish  thirst  of  office,  disunion  and 
other  causes  of  disaffection — Irish  dissatisfied  en  masse  in 
Southwark  &  Moyamensing  and  so  forth.  It  is  really  a 
harder  undertaking  than  I  anticipated,  and  sometimes  I 
feel  quite  discouraged.  Sutherland,  Burden  [?],  Simpson, 
and  dozens  of  others  all  pulling  each  his  own  way,  and 
the  only  good  prominent  men  estranged  and  out  of 
humor.  I  am  in  town  to-day  to  see  what  I  can  do,  and 
had  some  resolutions  passed — and  unanimously — at  the 
town  and  county  conference  yesterday  which  I  hope  may 
serve  as  a  rallying  point.  But  really  we  are  in  trouble  and 
jeopardy.  If  I  can  prevail  on  them  to  disregard  all  office 
hunting  till  after  the  election,  not  only  disregard  but  dis 
countenance  it,  and  rally  on  the  President's  Message, 
that  may  at  least  postpone  the  crumbling  to  pieces  which  I 
fear  is  inevitable." 

is  225 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

His  ideas  upon  removals  from  office  were  given 
to  Mr.  Gilpin  early  in  Mr.  Van  Buren's  term,  and 
he  came  near  to  expressing  the  same  view  which 
has  been  expressed  upon  the  general  subject  and 
particularly  upon  "  offensive  partisans"  by  a  recent 
President.  He  wrote  upon  November  8,  1837, — 

' '  Aware  that  what  we  call  rotation  may  be  less  popular, 
perhaps  odious,  in  regions  to  be  attended  to,  and  having 
myself  strong  feelings  as  well  as  an  immovable  opinion 
on  the  subject,  I  lay  down  principles  viz  : 

"i.  The  south  and  southwest  are  won — I  trust  so — and 
the  centre  must  be  attended  to  a  little  now. 

"2.  Let  the  law  remove,  the  Executive  never  but  for 
cause.  But  when  the  4  year  law  makes  a  vacancy,  the  Presi 
dent  should  so  consider  it  and  make  known  that  he  will 
always  do  so. 

"3.  Every  opponent  in  office  should  not  be  removed. 
But  every  active,  salient,  opponent  in  office  ought  to  be 
forthwith  removed.  Spare  opinions,  but  not  overt  acts. 

"If  this  sometimes  cuts  back-handed,  so  much  the 
better." 

He  had  been  a  supporter  of  Van  Buren,  and  had 
been  active  in  a  reception  tendered  him  in  Phila 
delphia  in  the  end  of  March,  1841  ;  but  he  evi 
dently  came  to  the  conclusion  that  his  renomina- 
tion  would  be  unwise  in  1844,  and  he  and  Mr. 
Rush  and  others  tried  without  success  to  nominate 
Commodore  Stewart.  Mr.  Adams  says  that  Mr. 
Ingersoll  told  him  this  was  a  move  against  Bu- 
226 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

chanan,  and  a  letter  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  shows  that 
the  plan  had  been  started,  with  his  strong  disap 
proval,  by  some  active  politician  as  early  as  No 
vember,  1837.  He  was  mentioned  by  some  friends 
as  a  candidate  for  the  speakership  in  the  Twenty- 
Eighth  Congress,  but  was  not  among  those  voted 
for;  and  he  was  suggested  for  the  Senate  in  1845, 
when  Mr.  Buchanan  went  into  the  cabinet,  but 
Simon  Cameron  was  the  successful  candidate. 

During  the  eight  years,  from  1841  to  1849,  in 
which  he  was  in  Congress,  many  points  of  the 
greatest  importance  were  discussed  and  decided, — 
some  of  them  finally,  others  to  come  up  soon 
again.  The  Federal  Treasury  system,  the  banking 
system,  Texas,  the  Mexican  War,  the  growth  of 
the  anti-slavery  agitation,  and  the  disputes  with 
England  over  the  case  of  the  Caroline,  over  Ore 
gon,  and  over  the  Northeastern  Boundary,  presented 
an  abundance  of  material  for  decision,  in  all  of 
which  he  took  a  very  active  and  leading  part.  In 
our  system  we  have  not  any  definitely  chosen 
leader  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  but  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  undoubtedly  among  those  recognized  by  tacit 
consent  as  leaders  on  his  side.  And  this  position 
he  gained  very  early  in  his  first  session. 

Indeed,  during  the  organization  of  the  House, 
and  within  a  few  days  after  its  meeting,  he  made 
one  of  the  leading  speeches  on  the  subject  of  the 

Twenty-First  Rule ;  and  on  all  questions  of  most 

227 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

importance — the  tariff,  the  fiscal  bank,  the  ex 
chequer,  and  all  the  financial  questions  of  the  day 
— he  took  an  active  part  in  the  debates  and  had 
the  members'  close  attention.  His  speeches  usu 
ally  bear  the  marks  of  careful  preparation,  and 
contain  historical  and  other  information,*  which 
can  have  been  gathered  only  by  a  good  deal  of 
labor.  Some  of  them  were  biting  in  sarcasm,  and 
occasionally  they  were  full  of  a  humor  which  threw 
the  members  into  convulsions  of  laughter.  He  was 
strongly  opposed  to  the  limitations  upon  debate, 
which  were  enforced  with  great  stringency  in  the 
Twenty-Seventh  Congress,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
first  session  addressed  a  letter  to  his  constituents, 
in  which  he  reviewed  this  "  unconstitutional  sup 
pression  of  freedom  of  speech"  and  the  other 
striking  events  of  the  session,  which  he  called  "the 
revolution  of  the  hundred  days."  The  awful  con 
trast  between  the  promises  of  the  Whigs  and  their 
almost  ludicrous  failure  upon  the  death  of  Gen 
eral  Harrison  was  set  forth  in  sharp  contrast  in 
this  letter,  which  received  attention  far  and  wide 
over  the  country,  was  reprinted  from  the  Globe  into 
other  papers,  and  was  caustically  reviewed 48  in  the 
National  Intelligencer. 

*  See,  e.g.,  his  speech  on  the  Fiscal  Bank  Bill  on  August 
5,    1841  {Congressional  Globe,  Twenty -Seventh  Congress, 
first  session,  pp.  401-410),  containing  in  an  appendix  a  most 
elaborate  history  of  American  money. 
228 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  originally  assigned  to  the 
Judiciary  Committee,  of  which  he  had  been  chair 
man  in  1813—15  ;  but  his  name  was  put  near  the 
foot.  He  complained  on  the  floor  of  "  being  thus 
thrust  down  to  the  tail  of  the  committee ;"  but  in 
the  very  next  Congress  (the  Twenty-Eighth),  in 
which  the  Democrats  held  a  clear  majority,  he  was 
given  the  very  important  position  of  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and  he  was  con 
tinued  in  the  same  position  in  the  Twenty-Ninth 
Congress.  In  the  Thirtieth  Congress  the  Whigs 
appointed  him  on  the  same  committee,  but  of  course 
did  not  give  him  the  chairmanship.  He  was,  I 
think,  usually  a  strong  party  man,  but  occasionally 
introduced  measures  which  were  exclusively  his 
own. 

Proud  of  his  country,  inspired  with  no  small 
idea  of  our  imperial  greatness,  and  somewhat  as 
sertive  of  a  bold  and  rigidly  exclusive  American 
policy,  he  thought  it  best  to  widen  our  limits  in 
certain  directions, — and  what  would  the  country  be 
to-day  without  those  regions  ? — and  he  strongly 
advocated  the  annexation  of  Texas,  faced  war  with 
Mexico  without  hesitation,  and  thought  we  should 
have  been  vastly  more  firm  in  asserting  our  rights 
against  England.  He  had,  moreover,  grown  up 
during  the  very  early  days  of  the  Union,  and  knew 
from  the  lips  of  the  generation  which  preceded  him 
that  the  Union  might  well  have  never  existed ;  he 
229 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

had  heard  from  them  all  the  compromises  and 
agreements  which  alone  had  led  to  its  formation ; 
and  these  agreements  he  was  in  favor  of  maintain 
ing  as  an  integral  part  of  the  Union  itself.  His  life 
ran  far  back  into  a  period  of  history  which  is  now 
nearly  forgotten,  and  he  had  himself  as  a  student 
at  Princeton  seen  farms  in  New  Jersey  tilled  by 
negro  slaves.4?  Impressions  made  so  early  are 
rarely  eradicated. 

What  was  his  private  opinion  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  which  was  then  beginning  to  throw  our 
whole  public  life  into  turmoil,  will  be  seen  later, 
but  he  knew  its  history  in  our  country:  he  knew 
that  the  Union  would  have  been  absolutely  im 
possible  without  the  compromises  and  agreements 
upon  the  subject  contained  in  the  constitution, 
and  he  was  in  favor  of  preserving  and  executing 
those  agreements.  He  knew,  moreover,  that  the 
agitation  upon  the  subject  of  slavery,  which  was 
made  by  enthusiastic  abolitionists  and  was  soon 
used  by  politicians  for  political  ends,  had  a  direct 
tendency  to  break  up  the  Union  and  thus  involve 
the  country  in  unspeakable  and  incalculable  woes, 
and  he  did  his  part  on  the  lines  followed  by  the 
vast  majority  of  our  leading  men  to  stop  and  allay 
this  turmoil  and  to  save  the  country  from  the  peril 
of  disunion.  It  is  easy  for  writers  to-day,  thirty 
years  after  the  event,  to  concoct  elaborate  treatises 
upon  the  certain  result  of  the  war  of  1861-65,  and 
230 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  prove  to  their  satisfaction  and  that  of  some  of 
their  readers  that  the  war  was  always  bound  to 
succeed,  and  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  seces 
sion  movement  the  Union  was  absolutely  certain 
to  be  preserved.  But  hindsight  is  very  different 
from  foresight.  To  the  man  who  lived  fifty  and 
more  years  ago  and  had  to  act  upon  foresight, — 
to  the  statesman  knowing  the  grave  risks  of  radi 
cal  change  and  confronted  with  an  agitation  which 
was  morally  certain  to  result  in  an  effort  to  disrupt 
the  Union,  surely  the  true  course  was  to  try  to 
allay  the  disturbance. 

That  the  intense  agitation  of  the  subject  during 
the  thirty  or  forty  years  preceding  the  war— and 
there  never  was  a  set  of  men  who  knew  better  how 
to  agitate  and  ever  to  keep  agitating  than  the  abo 
litionists  and  the  politicians  who  took  up  their 
cries — had  had  the  direct  result  of  intensifying  and 
solidifying  the  pro-slavery  sentiment  of  the  South 
cannot  be  doubted ;  and  the  country  was  rapidly 
separating  into  two  hostile  camps,  North  and 
South.  Mr.  Madison,  a  short  time  before  his 
death,  had  said  5°  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  that  in  his  opin 
ion  "  the  worst  effect  of  the  abolition  excitement 
would  be  to  lead  the  minds  of  Southern  men  from 
looking  upon  slavery  as  a  necessary  evil,  to  look 
ing  upon  it  as  one  of  the  greatest  blessings"  they 
could  enjoy. 

To  say,  as  is  and  was  so  often  said,  that  the 
231 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Northern  agitators  desired  only  to  stop  the  spread 
of  slavery,  and  had  no  intention  of  interfering:  with 

»   *  o 

it  in  the  States  where  it  existed,  is  to  be  either  very 
unfair  or  very  blind.  For  it  was  plain  beyond  per- 
adventure  that  the  agitation  which  had  so  grown 
already  would  not  cease  to  grow  and  to  augment 
its  demands;  that  if  it  succeeded  in  placing  the 
slave  States  in  a  dwindling  minority  it  would  soon 
make  further  claims,  and  the  minority  would  be 
fore  long  find  itself  still  further  pressed.  The  agi 
tation,  even  during  its  few  years,  grew  with  tremen 
dous  strides,  and,  instead  of  stopping  at  a  mere 
effort  to  prevent  the  spread  of  slavery  in  the  Terri 
tories,  it  demanded  in  a  loud  voice  abolition  in  the 
District  of  Columbia, — where  the  Southerner  had 
to  come  as  well  as  the  Northerner;  it  demanded 
that  the  system  of  slave  representation,  one  of  the 
leading  compromises  of  the  constitution,  should  be 
abolished ;  it  not  only  refused  to  carry  out,  but 
openly  legislated  by  "  Personal  Liberty  Laws" 
against,  the  return  of  slaves  under  another  of  the 
compromises  of  the  constitution, — which  had  been 
entered  into  by  the  fathers  as  an  integral  part  of 
the  Union;  and  public  feeling  in  some  States  came 
in  time  to  banish  to  a  private  career  the  public 
man  who  had  any  part  in  executing  the  law. 

As  to  the  Southerner,  who  grew  up  from  infancy 
with  slavery  around  him  and  knew  how  impossi 
ble  it  was  to  abolish  the  system  without  radical 
232 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  revolutionary  change,  can  we  wonder  that  he 
insisted,  as  a  mere  matter  of  self-preservation, 
upon  the  right  to  settle  with  his  slaves  in  the 
Territories,  which  were  his  patrimony  as  much  as 
that  of  the  North,  and  that  he  tried  in  other  ways 
to  widen  his  domain,  and  later  came  to  threaten 
and  think  seriously  of  disunion?  And  to  the 
Northern  statesman,  who  had  not  taken  up  the 
anti-slavery  cry  for  political  profit,  the  agitation 
of  the  abolitionists  seemed  a  great  evil,  and  he,  of 
course,  united  with  the  South  in  a  laudable  effort 
to  quiet  the  disturbance  and  to  preserve  and 
enforce  the  constitution  in  all  its  clauses.  The 
enthusiastic  moralist,  who  convinces  himself  that 
slavery,  or  property  in  land,  or  all  private  property, 
or  primogeniture,  or  aristocracy,  is  a  moral  canker, 
to  touch  which  is  to  be  polluted,  is  entitled  to  a 
high  degree  of  respect  and  often  of  admiration, 
but  he  is  not  a  statesman ;  and  the  statesman, 
having  the  lives  and  happiness  of  millions  depen 
dent  to  some  extent  upon  him,  will  rather  seek 
the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number,  even 
though  wrong  be  done  to  some,  than  turn  the 
whole  system  upside  down  and  plunge  his  coun 
try  into  revolution  and  war.  Wrong,  grievous 
wrong,  exists  in  the  world  to-day,  and  always  has 
existed,  and  man  sees  too  short  a  distance  ahead  to 
enter  rashly  upon  revolutionary  change  until  the 
evils  endured  have  grown  well-nigh  intolerable. 
333 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

But  to  the  public  man  the  course  to  pursue  was 
more  clearly  indicated  in  this  case  than  in  most 
others,  for  the  abolition  movement  was  distinctly 
coupled  with  a  movement  for  disunion ;  its  leaders 
almost  to  a  man  openly  detested  and  reviled 
the  constitution,  were  fairly  ribald  upon  it,  in 
voked  curses  upon  it,  and  prayed  and  hoped 
for  the  dissolution  and  disruption  of  the  Union 
by  any  means  and  at  any  cost.  Even  the  ven 
erable  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had  been  a 
statesman  of  wide  repute  so  long  and  who  was 
so  mild  as  on  occasions  to  incur  the  disapproval 
of  the  abolitionists,  proclaimed  in  the  House  in 
1844  that  "  he  believed  in  his  soul,  if  it  [the  pro 
posed  amendment  abolishing  slave  representation] 
was  not  made  before  long,  this  Union  would 
tumble  into  pieces ;"  and  he  several  times  intro 
duced  into  the  House  petitions  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union,  coming  from  abolition  sources. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison  called  the  constitution 
an  "  agreement  with  death  and  a  covenant  with 
hell."  James  Wilson  stated  that  he  would  rather 
dissolve  the  Union  or  the  universe  than  extend 
slavery,  and  Horace  Mann  and  Samuel  May  con 
curred  with  him.  Henry  Wilson  wanted  openly 
to  nullify  the  constitution  as  to  an  escaped  Texan 
slave,  and  was  ready  to  act  in  favor  of  emancipa 
tion  with  any  party  or  any  set  of  men.  Wendell 
Phillips  invoked  his  curse  upon  the  constitution 
234 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

because  of  slavery,  and  thought  no  abolitionist 
could  consistently  demand  less  than  its  dissolu 
tion.  A  proposed  professor  was  rejected  at  Har 
vard  because  he  had  as  commissioner  returned  a 
slave.  The  Massachusetts  Legislature  addressed 
the  governor  to  remove  a  judge  for  enforcing  the 
fugitive  slave  law,  and  its  execution  was  opposed 
ii  et  armis  by  the  best  citizens,  and  agents  under 
the  law  were  advised  to  leave  Boston  while  unmo 
lested.  Massachusetts  and  some  other  States 
made  it  penal  for  their  officers  to  execute  the  fugi 
tive  slave  law  of  1793,  and  a  Boston  meeting  pub 
licly  resolved  in  1850  that  they  would  not  permit 
the  execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  by  the  United 
States  authorities,  speakers  even  predicting  that  if 
the  United  States  marshal  were  killed  in  the  effort 
no  jury  would  convict  his  murderer.  The  Amer 
ican  Anti-Slavery  Society  and  the  New  England 
Anti-Slavery  Society — the  latter  by  a  nearly  unani 
mous  vote — declared  against  the  Union  in  1844, 
and  at  least  two  State  societies  were  openly  in 
favor  of  its  dissolution  in  1850.  Henry  Wilson 
tells  us  that  there  was  a  class  of  abolitionists  who 
agreed  with  Garrison's  above-quoted  opinion,  and 
he  has  produced  ample  evidence  of  their  general 
hatred  of  the  Union  and  desire  to  dissolve  it.51 

These  numerous   instances   cannot  be  brushed 
aside  by  saying   that   they  were   sporadic;    they 
were  undoubtedly  typical.     That  the  original  abo- 
235 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

litionists  were  guided  by  the  impulse  of  their 
hearts  may  be  freely  admitted,  but  it  ought  to  be 
equally  admitted  to-day  in  the  arena  of  history 
that  a  vast  deal  of  the  noise  and  agitation  of  the 
subject  was  due  to  the  wiles  of  politicians,  who 
scented  an  issue  that  might  lead  them  into  office 
and  then  made  the  most  of  it.  That  such  was  the 
case  was 52  asserted  by  Webster  and  admitted  by 
Raymond,  and,  though  not  emphasized  by  our 
historians  generally,  is  certainly  a  fact. 

I  have  gone  into  these  matters  of  history  at 
some  length,  because  they  are  vital  to  an  under 
standing  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  course  upon  many 
subjects.  Such  persistent  efforts  have  been  made 
to  write  down  the  statesmen  of  his  day  who 
thought  as  he  did  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  is 
possible  to-day  even  to  secure  the  ear  of  many 
readers.  But  I  submit  that  in  his  time  and  for 
many  years  the  anti-slavery  movement  was  dis 
tinctly  and  avowedly  united  with  a  movement  for 
the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  that  in  the  light 
of  this  historical  fact  it  is  absolutely  false  to  teach, 
as  von  Hoist  and  Schouler  and  our  historians  of 
that  period  generally  do,  that  the  men  who  op 
posed  the  abolition  sentiment  and  in  the  main 
supported  the  South  were  wrong,  blind,  and 
wicked.  Schouler  does  write53  in  one  place  that 
"  time  should  deal  very  gently  with  the  loyal  con 
servatism,  North  and  South,  which  deprecated  all 
236 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

agitation  on  this  tender  subject"  [slavery]  ;  but  it 
is  a  sad  blot  on  his  often  admirable  history  that, 
whenever  he  himself  approaches  the  subject  of 
slavery  or  the  South,  he  drops  *  the  historian  and 
becomes  a  mere  rabid  partisan  ;  while  von  Hoist 
concocts  many  pages  of  what  he  miscalls  a  "  con 
stitutional  and  political  history"  largely  of  the 
political  clap-trap  and  absurd  campaign  nicknames 
of  one  side.  The  German  author  seems  to  have 
no  comprehension  that  there  is  anything  in  our 
history  but  the  overthrow  of  what  he  calls  the 
"  slavocracy,"  and  must  clearly  have  taken  up  his 
pen  with  a  fixed  plan  of  writing  down  all  our  pub 
lic  men  who  did  not  join  in  the  abolition  cry. 
Such  works  are  not  history,  and  the  man  of  that 
time  who  sided  with  Clay  and  Webster  and  the 
great  host  with  them,  in  favor  of  the  Union  and 
against  the  incessant  agitation  which  imperilled  it, 
will  certainly  rank  higher  in  American  history — 
should  a  real  history  ever  be  written — as  a  states 
man  and  patriot  than  will  those  who  were  forever 
throwing  fuel  on  the  fire  controlled  by  the  men 
who  loathed  the  Union  and  proclaimed  their  fixed 
determination  to  destroy  it. 

It  has  already  been  said  that,  within  a  few  days 

*  What  does  this  writer  mean  when  he  speaks  (History, 
iv.  56)  of  the  Southern  delegates  to  the  Free  Trade  Con 
vention  of  1831  as  "Arabs"  ? 
237 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  the  first  meeting  of  the  Twenty-Seventh  Con 
gress  in  extra  session,  Mr.  Ingersoll  made  a  lead 
ing  speech  upon  the  subject  of  the  famous  Twenty- 
First  Rule  (the  rule  to  prevent  the  reception  of 
abolition  petitions) ;  he  had  moved  to  reconsider 
the  vote  by  which  the  House  had  agreed  to  Mr. 
Adams's  amendment  to  strike  out  that  rule;  and 
in  his  speech  upon  the  subject  he  pointed  out  to 
the  Southerners  that  the  true  course  was  to  modify 
the  rule  so  as  to  take  from  their  opponents  the 
grounds  for  calling  it  a  "  gag-rule"  and  a  violation 
of  the  right  of  petition.  On  the  latter  point  he 
further  argued  that  the  right  of  petition  is  not  an 
American  but  an  English  right,  and  that  here  the 
people  have  the  far  more  extended  right  of  instruc 
tion.  After  referring  to  the  constant  agitation  of 
the  subject  from  England,  and  their  absolute  gov 
ernment  of  "  eight  millions  of  oppressed  Irish,  of 
one  hundred  million  enslaved  East  Indians,"  he 
called  upon  Mr.  Wise,  after  proper  Congressional 
action,  to  get  the  President  to  instruct  our  minister 
in  Great  Britain  "  to  retaliate  this  insulting  inter 
ference." 


"  Let  it  be  represented,"  he  said,  "  in  the  blandest  terms 
of  diplomatic  intercourse  which  humanity  requires  and 
good  policy  enjoins,  that  the  Irish  people  should  be  allowed 
a  Legislature  of  their  own  for  their  local  affairs  ;  that  our 
own  experience  proves  that  a  great  central  Legislature  for 
238 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

remote  municipalities  is  not  less  injurious  to  them  than  to 
the  metropolitan  state.  Let  them  be  told  that  the  interest 
they  express  for  the  emancipation  of  our  slaves,  we  heartily 
reciprocate  for  theirs.  Put  a  stop,  in  short,  sir,  to  the  im 
pertinent  intermeddling  of  the  English  Government  and 
English  individuals  with  our  established  institutions  by 
similar  remonstrances  against  such  of  theirs  as  are  much 
more  obnoxious  to  complaint,  and  my  life  upon  it  in  a  very 
short  time  Abolition  will  be  much  less  agitated  than  it  is. 
The  source  of  it  is  in  England,  the  streams  are  but  tribu 
tary  which  flow  through  parts  of  this  country.  Let  me  say 
to  the  torrid  South,  that  with  all  its  animation,  it  has  never 
repelled  with  sufficient  vigor  this  foreign  invasion  of  its 
rights,  and  traduction  of  its  character.  In  the  central 
States,  I  believe  we  are  almost  all  nearly  of  one  mind  re 
specting  slavery  as  an  evil  and  slavery  as  a  right.  The 
gentleman  from  Massachusetts  spoke  of  the  Pennsylvania 
act  of  Assembly,  which  led  the  way  to  Abolition,  as  an 
event  of  thirty  or  forty  years  ago.  Sir,  it  is  sixty  years 
since  that  statute  was  enacted  for  the  gradual  abolition  of 
slavery  within  the  State.  Even  then,  before  a  Federal 
Constitution  had  imposed  its  obligations,  none  of  the  wise 
and  benevolent  originators  of  that  act  thought  of  imme 
diate  emancipation  even  within  their  own  State,  or  of  inter 
fering  with  slavery  at  all  in  any  other.  It  was  reserved  for 
modern  subserviency  to  British  propagandism,  to  denounce 
bondage,  and  attempt  to  put  an  end  to  it  extra-territorially. 
The  people  of  the  South  may  rely  upon  it,  that  those  of 
Pennsylvania,  and,  I  believe,  of  all  the  free  States,  are 
still  as  averse  as  ever  to  such  injustice.  There  is  little  or 
no  difference  of  sentiment  upon  the  subject.  We  con 
sider  it  an  evil  which  we  are  happy  to  be  rid  of,  but  we  are 
unwilling  to  judge  for  those  of  other  States,  who  may  or 
239 


CHARLES   JARED   JNGERSOLL 

may  not  think  as  we  do,  and  with  whose  institutions  we 
have  no  right  to  interfere,  directly  or  indirectly,  either  by 
agitation  or  by  law  ;  whom,  on  the  contrary,  we  are  bound 
to  maintain  in  all  their  federal  rights,  and  to  let  alone  in 
all  their  State  rights.  I  repeat,  then,  that  the  policy  and 
the  duty  of  the  South,  instead  of  the  futile  expressions  of 
lofty  indignation,  is  to  vindicate  themselves  by  uniting  with 
the  North,  to  repel  foreign  disparagement,  to  rouse  the  en 
thusiasm  of  patriotism,  to  repel  that  of  fanaticism,  and 
thus  to  put  an  end  to  its  aggressions.  For  my  own  part,  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  call  myself  an  Abolitionist,  in  the  sense 
of  Washington,  and  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  and  Marshall. 
In  that  sentiment,  the  people  of  my  State,  and  I  believe 
nearly  all  those  of  the  Middle  States — the  great  central 
zone  which  binds  this  Union  together — are  well  nigh  unani 
mous,  and  altogether  resolved,  without  distinction  of  party, 
ready,  by  all  lawful  means,  to  put  down  those  who  propa 
gate  and  foment  the  dismemberment  of  the  Union  and  dis 
grace  of  the  American  national  character.  .  .  . 

"  The  venerable  member  from  Massachusetts  talks  of  an 
insurrection  of  the  slaves  and  servile  war,  with  an  argu 
mentative  composure  which  I  cannot  conceive  of.  Sir,  I 
was  astonished,  and  I  must  say  my  blood  curdled  with 
horror,  when  I  heard  a  gentleman  of  his  high  and  influen 
tial  position,  whose  sentiments  must  make  a  deep  impres 
sion,  not  only  throughout  this  country,  but  abroad  ;  a  past 
President  of  the  United  States,  declare  on  this  floor — let  me 
be  corrected  if  I  misunderstood  him — that  in  the  event  of 
a  servile  war,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  would 
authorize  the  catastrophe  of  the  universal  emancipation  of 
all  the  slaves  of  the  eleven  slave  States  of  this  Union  by 
means  of  the  treaty-making  power. 

"  MR.  ADAMS  here  rose  in  explanation^  and  said  he  did 
240 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

not  say  that,  in  the  event  of  a  servile  war  or  insurrection, 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  would  be  at  an  end. 
What  he  did  say  was  this  ;  that  in  the  event  of  a  servile 
war  or  insurrection  of  slaves,  if  the  people  of  the  free 
States  were  called  upon  to  suppress  the  insurrection,  and 
to  spend  their  blood  and  treasure  in  putting  an  end  to  the 
war — a  war  in  which  the  distinguished  Virginian,  the  author 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  said  that  "God 
has  no  attribute  in  favor  of  the  master" — then  he  would 
not  say  that  Congress  might  not  interfere  with  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  in  the  States,  and  that,  through  the  treaty- 
making  power,  universal  emancipation  might  not  be  the 
result.  And  he  would  say,  further,  that,  if  this  twenty- 
first  rule  is  reinstated,  the  people  of  the  North  will  be  ipso 
facto  absolved  from  all  obligations  under  the  Constitution. 
"  MR.  INGERSOLL  resumed.  This  is  no  time,  Mr. 
Speaker,  to  deal  with  constitutional  doctrine,  so  easily  re 
futable.  Yet  I  cannot  refrain  from  remarking  that  the 
honorable  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  attributes  to  the 
Executive  branch  of  this  Government  a  prepotency  hitherto 
unheard  of.  It  was  he  who  formerly,  I  think,  denied  that 
by  the  treaty-making  power,  Louisiana,  with  all  its  offspring 
of  States,  could  be  incorporated  with  this  Union.  And  it 
is  he  who  now  assigns  to  the  treaty-making  power  the  for 
midable  and  destructive  faculty  of  sundering  the  Union, 
and  desolating  one  third  of  it  in  frightful  extermination,  by 
refusal,  as  uncharitable  as  it  would  be  unconstitutional,  to 
suppress  an  insurrection  of  the  slaves.  All  Southern  ab 
stractions  may  hide  their  diminished  heads  before  this 
prodigious  and  portentous  distraction  of  that  most  experi 
enced  and  distinguished  statesman.  Speaking  also,  as  I 
always  do,  with  reverence  for  the  purity  of  his  motives, 
and  the  elevation  of  his  character,  I  must  add  that  Caro- 
16  241 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

lina  nullification  is  insignificant  contrasted  with  the  tran 
scendental  abruption  of  his  Northern  divergence,  which, 
ipso  facto,  dissolved  the  whole  North  from  all  Federal  alle 
giance  by  force  of  a  mere  rule  for  ordering  the  business  of 
this  House.  .  .  . 

"What  is  an  American  Abolitionist,  I  have  never  been 
able  distinctly  to  understand.  Denunciation,  declamation, 
passionate,  unmerciful  and  unmerited  abuse  of  Southern 
institutions,  reviling  slavery  as  a  sin,  and  the  slave  trade 
as  piracy,  are  neither  arguments  nor  reasons.  I  want  to 
know  what  it  is  distinctly  that  is  proposed  to  be  done  for 
the  removal  of  the  alleged  grievance.  It  appears  to  me 
that  there  are  three  classes  united  in  this  conspiracy,  who 
may  be  characterized  as — ist ;  mere  enthusiasts  or  zealots, 
who  do  not  pretend  to  reason,  but  merely  declaim,  de 
nounce,  and  vilify.  2d  ;  rational  Abolitionists,  such  as 
those  by  whom  I  am  desired  to  present  the  petition  to  this 
House  which  I  now  hold  in  my  hand,  asking  for  an  altera 
tion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  exclude 
eleven  of  them  from  the  Union.  And  3d  ;  partisans,  to 
whom  Abolition  is  a  cloak  or  disguise  by  which  to  impose 
A  or  B  as  a  President  or  member  of  Congress  upon  the 
community,  or  to  prevent  their  elections,  as  being  favor 
able  or  inimical  to  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Of  these,  the 
first  category  are  to  be  treated  with  the  tenderness  due  to 
sincere  anxiety.  Ever  since  the  crusades  there  have  been 
and  will  continue  to  be,  propagandists  and  missionaries 
riding  their  hobbies  in  one  direction  or  another,  either  this 
way  or  that,  who  cannot  be  controlled  while  they  violate 
no  laws,  like  such  as  seek  any  other  species  of  recreation 
or  excitement. 

"The  second  category,  the  rational  but  impracticable 
Abolitionists,  those  who  seek  to  dismember  this  Union  by 
242 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

a  change  of  the  Constitution,  which  never  can  be  accom 
plished,  must  be  controlled.  The  law  must  be  enforced 
against  them.  They  are  not  to  be  allowed  to  confound  a 
supposed  right  of  petition  with  the  abuse  of  Abolition,  or 
otherwise  to  disturb  the  constitutional  repose  of  this  Union 
and  the  undeniable  right  of  each  State  to  adopt,  refuse, 
and  otherwise  regulate  slavery,  as  its  citizens  may  think 
proper.  The  third  class — I  declare  here  what  I  stated  in 
another  public  assembly —  the  Convention  of  Pennsylvania 
— partisan  Abolitionists,  are  among  the  most  reprehensible 
traitors  to  this  country  ;  who,  though  they  cannot  be  pun 
ished  in  the  regular  administration  of  penal  justice,  ought 
to  be  denounced  to  universal  reprobation.  Without  an  im 
practicable  organic  change,  to  what  practical  or  possible 
end  can  their  movements  lead  ?  Cut  bono  ?  What  can 
they  come  to  ?  \Vhat  must  they  end  in  ?  It  is  universally 
agreed  that  slavery  is  not  of  Congressional  jurisdiction, 
except  in  this  District.  There  seems  to  be  no  denial  of 
the  established  doctrine  that  any  State  may  use  it  that 
thinks  proper  to  do  so.  ... 

"  And  what  are  its  [Abolition's]  inhuman  influences  on 
bondage  ?  Some  years  ago,  as  I  understood  the  gentle 
man  from  Massachusetts,  a  resolution  actually  passed  this 
House  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District.  Now,  he  owns, 
even  he  cannot  vote  for  it.  He  does  not  believe  it  would 
get  more  than  very  few  votes  in  this  House.  It  is  too 
soon  for  emancipation.  Wherefore,  but  because  it  has 
been  clamored  out  of  favor  by  ungenerous  denunciation 
of  the  cowardice  of  the  South,  made  cowards  by  con 
science,  which  stings  the  Southern  heart  with  apprehen 
sion  that  in  a  conflict  between  master  and  slave  there 
is  no  attribute  of  the  Deity  to  incline  him  to  the  master  ? 
Such  is  the  philosophy  of  this  agitation.  In  Maryland, 
243 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Virginia,  and  Kentucky,  slavery  was  waning,  receding, 
declining.  If  the  curse  it  is  said  to  be,  the  argument  is 
irresistible  that  spontaneity  would  remove  it  sooner  than 
coercion — legitimate,  gradual,  beneficent  emancipation, 
not  the  placard,  the  torch,  the  rifle,  and  the  gallows.  But 
Great  Britain,  by  violence,  having  increased  the  foreign 
slave  trade,  as  is  every  successive  President's  information 
to  Congress,  and  fearfully  aggravated  its  vast  horrors, 
English  and  Americans,  in  deplorable  and  inhuman  com 
bination,  are  engaged  by  untimely  agitation  in  disquieting 
the  slaves,  abusing  and  endangering  their  masters,  and 
depreciating  the  property  of  large,  moral,  tranquil,  and 
prosperous  portions  of  our  country.  They  procrastinate, 
they  prevent  Abolition.  They  add  rivets  to  every  chain. 
They  drive  the  iron  deeper  into  every  soul  in  bondage. 
They  preach  and  teach  hopeless  revolt  and  suicidal  insur 
rection.  They  expose  several  millions  of  unoffending 
whites  to  the  reckless  butchery  of  some  millions  of  infuri 
ated  blacks.  They  provoke  dreadful  reactions.  They 
foment  deadly  animosities.  They  breed  incurable  calami 
ties,  by  perversion,  ay,  profanation  of  humanity  !  As  char 
ity,  the  benignest  offspring  of  our  blessed  religion,  is  the 
cement  of  individual  well  being,  so  is  comity  the  bond  of 
nations,  and  compromise  the  only  tie  of  this  confederation 
— of  all  legislation.  Not  an  act  of  Congress  becomes 
such,  without  large  infusions  of  compromise.  But  Aboli 
tion  spurns  all — charity,  comity,  compromise,  Constitu 
tion,  law,  order,  religion,  peace — it  tramples  down  all 
with  an  iron  hoof  of  unmerciful  fanaticism.  I  visited  Mr. 
Madison  a  few  weeks  before  his  serene  and  philosophical 
death.  He  was  extremely  feeble,  unable  to  sit  up.  But 
he  raised  his  almost  exanimate  body  from  the  couch, 
when  speaking  to  me  of  modern  Abolition  ;  he  said  that, 
244 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  it  alone,  we  owe  not  only  the  lamentable  arrest  of 
onward  emancipation  ;  but,  till  it  intruded,  no  Governor 
in  Carolina  extolled  slavery  as  a  happy  balance  of  her 
Government,  no  Virginia  professor  vindicated  its  moral 
advantages.  .  .  . 

"Respecting  the  third  question  which  I  premised,  that 
of  regulation,  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not  like  the  2ist 
rule,  because  it  is  both  too  comprehensive  and  too  strin 
gent.  We  are  not  now  called  upon  to  repeal,  but  to 
renew  it ;  and  if  I  might  judge  for  myself  or  those  I  repre 
sent,  I  would  prefer  seeing  it  at  least  modified.  I  am 
unable  to  judge  of  the  effects  which  its  abandonment  now, 
after  being  in  operation  some  years,  might  have  on  the 
slave-holding  States.  It  may  look  like  yielding  to  what 
they  deem  ungenerous  agitation,  and  unconstitutional  ag 
gression,  and  so  prove  injurious  to  their  cause.  But  I 
cannot  help  thinking,  that  if  there  were  no  hindrance  to 
petitions  on  this  subject,  Abolition  would  soon  expire  by 
spontaneous  combustion.  .  .  . 

"Yet,  I  would  like  to  see  this  rule  so  pruned  of  some 
unnecessary  phraseology,  and,  moreover,  so  modified  in 
principle,  as  to  render  it  strictly  and  unexceptionably  con 
formable  to  the  real,  constitutional  position,  proper  to  be 
occupied  by  those  on  this  floor  who  think  as  I  do  on  the 
subject.  Whatever  may  be  said,  sir,  of  the  fiscal  and 
economical  necessities  of  the  country,  this,  after  all,  is  the 
greatest  of  topics.  This  is  the  question  of  by  far  the  most 
pervading,  the  most  enduring,  the  most  vital  importance. 
It  is  the  topic  of  the  world,  the  question  of  the  age.  Par 
liament  and  Congress  are  both  engaged  upon  it.  English 
as  well  as  American  elections  turn  upon  it.  I  feel  anx 
ious,  I  confess,  very  anxious,  so  to  vote  upon  it  as  to  be 
exactly  right,  to  yield  no  principle  of  conscience  to  the 
245 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

pressure  of  any  kind  of  expediency,  but  to  maintain  the 
Constitution  we  have  all  sworn  to  support,  in  its  very 
letter,  its  very  spirit  and  true  construction."*4 


This  speech  was  made  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
incessant  interruptions,  by  calls  to  order  upon  the 
charge  that  he  was  wandering  from  the  subject,  so 
much  bad  feeling  was  there  upon  the  question.  Mr. 
Ingersoll's  motion  to  reconsider  was  defeated,  but 
a  slightly  different  one  prevailed,  and  the  Twenty- 
First  Rule,  still  in  the  same  form,  was  continued  as  a 
part  of  the  rules  of  the  Twenty-Seventh  House.  It 
was  finally  repealed  only  at  the  last  session  of  the 
Twenty-Eighth  Congress,  and  thus  there  was  re 
moved  a  very  striking  instance  of  the  folly  of 
power.  It  had  served  little  purpose  but  to  give 
the  abolitionists  and  professional  agitators  an  op 
portunity  they  were  not  slow  to  make  the  most 
of,  and  after  its  repeal  the  same  practical  result  was 
reached  of  smothering  the  abolition  petitions. 

Upon  the  tariff  Mr.  Ingersoll's  course  in  Con 
gress  was  the  same  as  that  he  had  followed  for 
many  years.  He  voted  against  the  tariff  of  1846, 
and  had  voted  and  spoken  in  favor  of  the  higher 
Act  of  1842.  His  main  speech  was  upon  the  bill 
which  passed  the  House  in  July,  1842,  and  was 
vetoed,  and  he  then  proposed  a  bill  which  omitted 
the  land  distribution  clause  objected  to  by  Mr.  Tyler, 
and  fixed  the  rates  in  the  main  at  the  same  figures 
246 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

as  had  prevailed,  under  the  Compromise  Act, 
during  the  year  1839.  His  proposal,  however, 
failed ;  and  the  bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Fillmore 
from  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  passed  with 
his  approval.  His  wish  was  to  attain  stability  and 
certainty  in  the  tariff,  and  he  thought  the  compro 
mise  of  1833  had  been  very  beneficial  in  this  re 
spect.  He  greatly  disliked  the  sudden  growth  of 
vast  fortunes  under  the  tariff,  and  said  in  1842  of 
the  Act  of  1828  — 

"I  confess  its  extravagance.  It  was  too  stimulant — 
over-bountiful.  When  an  honorable  gentleman  from  Con 
necticut  tells  us  that  all  the  streams  of  that  State  have  been 
covered  with  manufacturing  villages  by  acts  of  Congress  : 
when  we  hear  of  enormous  fortunes  acquired  in  a  short 
time  at  Lowell  by  incorporated  labor, — we  are  informed,  I 
think,  of  manufacturing  excesses  which  do  not  deserve 
commendation  or  encouragement.  Congress  should  plant 
no  hot-beds  of  manufactures.  .  .  .  There  must  be  severe 
competition,  or  there  will  be  no  durable  success."  ss 

It  was  upon  the  veto  of  the  earlier  tariff  bill  that 
the  exasperated  Whigs,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Adams,  appointed  a  special  committee  to  consider 
the  subject  of  the  executive  vetoes.  Mr.  Ingersoll 
was  upon  this  committee,  and  drew  up  one  of  the 
minority  reports  defending  Mr.  Tyler.  His  per 
sonal  relations  with  that  "  President  without  a 
party"  seem  to  have  been  pleasant,  but  their  rela- 
247 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tions  were  no  closer  than  this,  and  he  repeatedly 
opposed  his  policy  and  even  his  pet  schemes.  The 
repeated  vetoes,  which  so  utterly  broke  up  the 
Whigs,  were  of  course  welcome  to  him,  as  they 
advanced  the  policy  he  favored ;  but  he  by  no 
means  fell  into  the  egregious  error  of  becoming  a 
Tyler  man.  When  charged  by  Mr.  Raynor  with 
being  one  of  a  procession  of  Democratic  members 
who  had  marched  to  the  President's  and  had 
there  given  the  sentiment  of  "  veto  and  ditto,"  he 
was  able  immediately  to  deny  the  charge.  And 
on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Tyler's  exchequer  system — 
a  measure  most  strongly  urged  by  the  Executive — 
he  made  the  last  speech  against  it,  and  the  reports 
of  the  day  record  that  "  all  the  members  crowded 
up  to  hear  him,  and  the  House  was  as  still  as 
death."  In  this  speech  he  said, — 

"But  I  cannot  yield  to  this  measure,  which  has  been 
pressed,  and  so  unduly  pressed  upon  us  by  the  President  ! 
From  all  that  I  can  see,  hear,  read,  and  learn,  the  Presi 
dent  seems  to  have  made  the  passage  of  this  Exchequer  a 
strong  and  favorite  object.  Sir,  with  all  the  respect  and 
gratitude  that  I  feel  for  that  distinguished  man,  that  fact, 
sir,  would  be  an  additional  reason  for  me  to  vote  against 
it.  But  to  return  to  the  act  of  '89,  sir;  are  gentlemen 
aware  that  that  act  not  only  creates  an  Independent  Treas 
ury,  but  an  Independent  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ? — one 
who  is  not  obligated  to  make  his  reports  to  the  President, 
but  must  report  to  this  House.  And  this  House  can  at  all 
times,  by  resolution,  call  that  Secretary  to  the  bar  of  the 
248 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

House — not  being  under  the  necessity  of  writing  to  him  for 
any  information  it  may  want,  and  receiving  written  an 
swers  ;  but  the  House  has  the  power  of  placing  that 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  there  at  the  bar,  and  then 
and  there  to  question  him  to  the  fullest  extent  as  to  the 
state  of  the  finances,  the  public  treasury,  and  every  matter 
within  the  scope  of  his  duties.  A  peculiar  power,  this, 
and  showing  what  was  the  design  of  the  wise  and  prudent 
framers  of  that  act.  That  act  of  '89  has  not  been  altered 
since — it  still  stands  on  the  Statute  Book,  and  there  it  will 
stand  until  something  better  shall  take  its  place. '  's6 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  opposed  to  complicated  rules 
of  procedure  for  the  House,  and  always  glad  of 
the  opportunity  to  curtail  them ;  and,  I  suppose, 
was  not  a  skilful  parliamentarian.  He  favored  a 
high  standard  of  efficiency  in  the  public  depart 
ments,  but  was  evidently  much  impressed  with  the 
rapid  growth  of  uncalled-for  expenses  in  every 
branch.  The  expenses  in  the  halls  of  Congress 
themselves  was  a  matter  to  which  he  directed  his 
animadversion,  and  the  rapidly  augmented  judicial 
expenses  also  he  endeavored  to  reduce.  The  same 
was  also  the  case  to  some  extent  as  to  the  navy, 
though  here  especially  he  favored  a  high  degree 
of  efficiency.  To  our  system  of  foreign  missions 
and  consulships  he  devoted  a  good  deal  of  atten 
tion,  and  at  several  periods  introduced  bills  to  re 
duce  their  number.  His  opinion  was  that  we  do 
not  need  missions  except  at  the  more  important 
249 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

places,  and  he  thought  that  the  principal  purpose 
they  should  serve,  except  at  the  great  capitals,  was 
as  commercial  agents  to  extend  our  foreign  com 
merce. 

When  the  Sub-Treasury  was  re-enacted  at  the 
first  session  of  Congress  during  Mr.  Folk's  term, 
Mr.  Ingersoll  of  course  supported  it  earnestly, 
and  said  he  thought  it  of  far  more  permanent  im 
portance  than  even  Oregon  or  the  tariff.  It  has 
been  seen  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  advocate 
the  measure,  and,  indeed,  one  of  its  originators. 
The  re-enactment  of  this  great  device  practically 
removed  from  public  discussion  for  many  years 
the  subjects  of  banks  and  the  currency,  which  had 
for  so  long  nearly  driven  the  country  distracted. 

The  refunding  of  General  Jackson's  fine  was  an 
other  matter  in  which  he  took  an  active  interest. 
Petitions  for  the  passage  of  an  act  for  that  pur 
pose  were  early  introduced  into  the  Twenty- 
Seventh  Congress,  and  he  presented  a  minority 
report  from  the  Judiciary  Committee  in  its  favor, 
but  the  measure  failed.  In  the  end  of  June,  1842, 
Mr.  Polk  called  on  him  with  papers  on  the  subject 
sent  by  General  Jackson  to  Mr.  Kendall ;  and  Mr. 
Ingersoll  in  July  of  the  next  year  published  an 
elaborate  pamphlet  upon  the  subject.  I  presume 
from  these  facts  that  this  pamphlet  is  to  be  con 
sidered  as  presenting  with  authority  General  Jack 
son's  side  of  the  question.  In  the  preface  to  the 
250 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

pamphlet  its  author  writes  that  members  had 
several  times  objected  that  his  minority  report 
from  the  committee  had  presented  "  rather  the 
poetry  than  argument  of  the  case,"  and  that  he 
published  the  pamphlet  to  meet  this  objection.  A 
new  bill  for  the  purpose  was  introduced  by  him 
early  in  the  Twenty-Eighth  Congress  and  became 
a  law. 

One  other  point  which  should  be  mentioned  is  a 
series  of  desperate  conflicts  of  debate  between  him 
and  Mr.  Adams,  which  ran  through  more  than  one 
Congress,  and  which  (I  have  been  told)  were  fol 
lowed  with  close  interest  by  the  public.  Mr.  In- 
gersoll  said  in  the  House  that  he  had  been  repeat 
edly  warned  by  an  anonymous  writer,  who  signed 
himself"  Lynch,"  to  desist  from  these  battles,  but 
they  went  on  during  at  least  two  Congresses.  In 
earlier  life  the  two  men  had  been  friends ;  but  as 
the  separation  of  parties  grew,  and  as  the  North 
and  the  South  drew  themselves  up  almost  in  battle 
array,  under  the  impulse  of  the  anti-slavery  agita 
tion,  Mr.  Ingersoll  tended  to  one  side  while  Mr. 
Adams  tended  to  the  other  and  became  a  leader 
of  the  agitators.  Mr.  Ingersoll,  moreover,  felt 
that  in  this  bitter  fight,  which  was  fast  consuming 
the  very  vitals  of  Union,  it  was  specially  the  func 
tion  of  men  from  the  great  central  States  to  act  as 
arbiters  between  the  warring  sections. 

Indeed,  this  was  one  of  the  cardinal  points  of 
251 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

his  political  belief,  and  he  repeatedly  urged  to 
the  day  of  his  death  the  vast  importance  of  this 
function  of  "  the  temperate  zone  of  American  re 
publican  continental  union."  Not  only  on  the 
question  of  slavery,  but  on  the  tariff  and  other 
subjects,  he  held  this  highly  statesmanlike  view, 
and  repeatedly  tried  so  to  mould  public  opinion  in 
the  Middle  States  as  to  compose  the  contest  be 
tween  "  the  slave-holding  Southwest  and  the  slave- 
hating  Northeast."  The  bitter  and  jealous  nature 
of  Mr.  Adams  led  him  to  hate  Mr.  Ingersoll  for 
this  effort  to  quiet  and  compose  a  contest  which 
Mr.  Adams  was  among  the  most  active  in  foment 
ing,  and  desperate  disputes  frequently  arose  be 
tween  them.  These  evidently  left  their  sting  with 
Mr.  Adams,  and  many  pages  of  his  diary  are  dis 
figured  by  the  secret  outpouring  of  his  venom 
upon  Mr.  Ingersoll.  This  was,  however,  one  of 
the  ways  in  which  that  diarist  exercised  his  talents 
upon  probably  every  contemporary  of  the  least 
prominence  who  differed  with  him.  Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  attacks  were  all  open  to  the  world,  and  upon 
the  death  of  Mr.  Adams  he  introduced  a  bill  at 
an  early  day,  and  evidently  of  his  own  motion,  to 
give  to  Mrs.  Adams  the  franking  privilege,  which 
had  been  conferred  upon  Mrs.  Madison.  The 
privilege  is  not  so  valuable,  but  coming,  as  it  did, 
from  a  very  strong  opponent,  was  a  distinguished 
mark  of  respect  to  Mr.  Adams's  long  services,  and 
252 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

was  appreciated  as  such  by  Mrs.  Adams,  who 
wrote  to  acknowledge  "  with  grateful  sensibility 
the  inestimable  privilege  bestowed  by  Congress 
procured  for  her  through  the  kind  exertions  of 
Mr.  C.  J.  Ingersoll." 

In  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
introduced  a  bill  from  the  Judiciary  Committee  to 
abolish  public  executions,  and  was  active  in  se 
curing  the  passage  of  a  bill  to  rearrange  the  judi 
cial  circuits,  much  to  the  relief  of  the  judges.  He 
also  introduced  into  the  next  Congress  a  bill  on 
the  subject  of  copyright,  and  had  it  referred  to  a 
special  committee,  but  it  seems  never  to  have  been 
reported  on. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Texas — Settlement  from  United  States — In  Fact  indepen 
dent  of  Mexico  as  early  as  1823 — Anxiety  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Union — Mr.  Ingersoll's  Connection  with  Annex 
ation  as  Chairman  of  Foreign  Affairs — Extracts  from  his 
Diary — Oregon — His  Committee  again  against  him — 
Opinion  of  Polk  and  Buchanan — Disputes  with  Eng 
land,  and  Mr.  Webster's  Course — Case  of  the  Caroline 
— Mr.  Ingersoll's  Criticism  of  Webster's  Course  in — 
Mr.  Webster's  Scandalous  Reply  in  the  Senate — Mr. 
Ingersoll's  Charges  of  Dishonesty  against  Mr.  Webster 
— Proceedings  in  the  House — The  Committee  controlled 
in  Mr.  Webster's  Interest — Minority  Report — Public 
Dinner  tendered  Mr.  Ingersoll — Re-elected  to  Congress 
by  an  Increased  Plurality — Nominated  for  the  French 
Mission  —  Defeated  in  the  Senate — Retirement  from 
Public  Life. 

IT  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  the  Mexican  War 
was  a  war  of  aggression  and  was  waged  in  the  in 
terest  of  the  southern  section  of  the  Union.  The 
South  wanted  a  region  to  settle  with  Southerners 
owning  slaves,  in  order  to  give  a  counterweight  to 
the  rapidly  growing  power  of  the  North,  and  the 
annexation  of  Texas  and  the  Mexican  War  were 
the  consequences.  Therefore,  much  of  the  adverse 
criticism  of  these  events  is  justified;  but  there  is 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

much  palliation,  if  we  compare  the  case  with  that 
of  other  powerful  peoples  bordering  on  weaker 
ones.  In  almost  all  history  the  result  of  such  in 
stances  has  been  the  same  in  the  end,  but  our  case 
exhibits  a  self-retention  on  the  part  of  the  power 
ful  country  which  has  rarely  been  equalled. 

At  the  time  of  the  annexation,  early  in  1845,  not 
only  was  Texas57  independent  and  so  recognized 
by  all  the  great  countries,  but  she  had  been  inde 
pendent  for  at  least  nine  years.  Indeed,  as  early 
as  1830  the  Mexican  authorities  were  unable  to 
enforce  their  laws  there,  and  von  Hoist  writes  that 
from  1823  she  had  become  a  colony  of  the  United 
States  slaveholding  interest.  The  settlement  was, 
however,  in  part  from  the  North,  and  had  begun 
in  1819.  But  the  fact  to  be  emphasized  is  that 
she  was  settled  and  controlled  by  a  people  closely 
related  to  us  in  every  way,  and  had  since  1836 
been  imploring  admission  into  the  Union. 

Mexico,  it  is  quite  true,  denied  her  independence, 
and  even  asserted  that  she  would  look  upon  annexa 
tion  by  us  as  an  act  of  war,  but  she  certainly  had 
no  right  to  assume  this  position,  and  her  claim  of 
sovereignty  was  based  on  the  merest  paper  title. 
Of  the  extreme  value  of  the  territory  concerned 
to  the  United  States  two  opinions  cannot  be  enter 
tained,  and  from  the  time  of  Mr.  Monroe  many 
efforts  had  been  made  on  our  behalf  to  obtain  the 
Hio  Grande  as  a  boundary.  Texas  claimed  to  ex- 
255 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tend  to  that  river,  while  Mexico  maintained  that 
the  territory  between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the 
Nueces  belonged  still  to  her  as  the  mother-country ; 
the  truth  seems  to  be  that  neither  power  exercised 
any  real  control  over  this  sparsely  settled,  infertile 
region,  which  became  the  scene  and  ostensible 
cause  of  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  Mr.  Polk, 
having  agreed  with  the  Texans  to  defend  them  in 
case  of  annexation,  at  once  assumed  the  validity  of 
the  Texan  claim  and  ordered  General  Taylor  to  ad 
vance  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  a  clash  of  arms  soon 
occurred;  but  it  has  been  very  recently  shown58 
that  Polk  was  ready  and  anxious  for  war,  even 
before  the  armed  collision,  upon  the  return  of 
Slidell  from  his  unsuccessful  effort  to  treat  with 
the  Mexicans :  Polk  was  doubtless  anxious  to 
distinguish  his  administration  by  the  incorpora 
tion  of  Texas  and  still  other  territory  into  the 
Union. 

As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs,  from  1843  to  1847,  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  of 
course  a  large  share  in  all  the  events  of  the  day 
concerning  Texas,  and  he  was  an  ardent  annexa- 
tionist.  He  believed  that  the  territory  to  the  Rio 
Grande  had  fairly  been  included  in  our  Louisiana 
purchase,  and  he  constantly  spoke  of  "  reannexa- 
tion."  This  phrase  of  the  day  has  been  denounced 
as  a  "  lying  catch-word,"  but  it  had  certainly  some 
foundation,  and,  indeed,  far  more  than  most  na- 
256 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tional    claims   to   vast    unexplored   and    unsettled 
regions. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was,  moreover,  evidently  con 
vinced  that  England  and  France  were  intriguing 
in  various  ways  to  prevent  our  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  especially  by  securing  from  Mexico  a 
recognition  of  her  independence  under  a  guarantee 
that  she  should  not  unite  with  any  other  country. 
An  incomplete  sketch  by  him  of  the  acquisition 
of  Texas  quotes  answers  of  ministers  in  Parliament 
to  questions  put  to  them  and  conversations  of 
English  cabinet  officers  with  the  Texan  minister, 
which  seem  to  leave  no  doubt  that  such  an  effort 
was  making  by  the  English.  He  says,  too,  that 
the  English,  French,  and  Russian  ministers  in 
Washington  did  what  they  could  by  conversation 
with  members  of  Congress  to  caution  the  United 
States  against  aggrandizement.  He  himself  was 
spoken  to  upon  the  subject  by  the  French  and 
Russian  ministers,  and  doubtless  would  have  been 
spoken  to  by  Mr.  Pakenham  also,  but  that  they 
had  had  a  falling  out.  He  also  calls  attention  to 
the  transfer  to  Washington  of  Mr.  Pakenham  from 
Mexico,  where  he  had  grown  thoroughly  con 
versant  with  Mexican  and  Texas  affairs  and  feel 
ings,  and  the  sending  to  Mexico  of  Mr.  Bankhead, 
who  had  formerly  been  the  English  charge  in 
Washington,  and  was  thus  conversant  with  Amer 
ican  affairs. 

17  257 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

The  notes  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  are  too  incomplete 
to  reproduce,  but  these  facts  from  them  are  im 
portant  to  show  the  influences  under  which  he 
and  the  annexationists  of  the  day  acted.  The 
English,  moreover,  had  a  most  powerful  lever  to 
operate  upon  the  Texans,  for  their  proposal  offered 
them  peace  with  Mexico  and  the  immediate  cessa 
tion  of  a  border  warfare.  This  attempt  at  European 
interference  in  an  entirely  American  affair  was  in 
tensely  repugnant  to  Mr.  Ingersoll,  and  doubtless 
added  to  his  already  ardent  desire  to  see  the  im 
perial  territory  of  Texas  incorporated  into  the 
Union. 

It  was  one  of  the  misfortunes  of  his  position  that 
his  committee  was  against  him,  and  he  was  never 
able  to  secure  a  report.  The  committee  stood  4  to 
5,  Williams,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Stetson,  of  New 
York  (who  was  appointed  to  fill  the  place  of 
Beardsley,  resigned),  being  the  Democrats  opposed 
to  annexation,  and  all  the  Whigs  being  opposed. 
Mr.  Ingersoll  had  prepared  at  much  pains  an 
elaborate  report  vindicating  the  American  position, 
which  narrowly  escaped  strangulation.  Having 
been  taunted  in  the  House  by  Mr.  Adams  because 
the  committee  made  no  report  on  the  numerous 
resolutions  referred  to  it,  Mr.  Ingersoll  introduced 
his  intended  report  at  a  meeting  of  his  committee, 
but  an  adjournment  was  carried.  He  writes  that 
he  was  then  warned  by  a  better  parliamentarian 
258 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

than  himself  of  the  imminent  danger  of  his  report 
being  forever  buried  by  a  motion  in  the  committee 
to  table.  Naturally  anxious  not  to  have  all  his 
labors  upon  the  report  thus  put  to  naught,  he 
called  a  special  meeting,  at  which  some  members 
did  not  appear,  and  secured  unanimous  leave  to 
withdraw  the  report.  I  presume  his  opponents  did 
not  appreciate  their  opportunity  nor  his  intention  ; 
but  he  at  once  avoided  all  risk  of  future  trouble  by 
publishing  the  intended  report  as  a  letter  over  his 
own  signature  in  the  Globe,  in  which  form  ten 
thousand  copies  of  it  were  sold. 

During  part  of  this  period  he  made  occasional 
memoranda 59  of  public  events,  which  I  shall  here 
quote  at  some  length  : 

"  Dec  25.  43.  Mr.  Adams  having  presented  two  peti 
tions  against  the  admission  of  Texas  into  the  Union,  and 
had  them  referred  to  the  committee  on  foreign  affairs,  that, 
probably  unwittingly  on  his  part  (I  was  mistaken  :  he  un 
derstood  the  committee  better  than  I  did),  gives  me  charge 
of  this  subject.  Gov.  Gilmer,  on  that  committee,  is  all 
agog  for  taking  in  Texas,  which  Major  Lewis  hints  to  me  is 
because  Gilmer  is  interested  in  land  speculations  in  Texas. 
Yet  Gilmer  bears  the  character,  and  I  consider  him,  an 
uncommonly  independent,  honest  man.  But  it  amazes 
me  to  find  how  common  and  open  the  interest  of  members 
of  Congress  is  paramount.  Major  Lewis  has  given  me  to 
day  a  letter  from  Gen.  Jackson  dated  the  18  September 
last  and  shown  me  another  of  the  1 5  December  to  Lewis, 
by  which  it  appears  that  Jackson  is  strong  for  annexation, 
259 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  I  am  struck  with  the  cogency  of  his  arguments  and 
the  wisdom  of  his  views  and  methods.  .  .  .  Lewis  prom 
ises  me  some  papers  now  in  Upshur's  hands,  and  to  get  him 
to  tell  Gilmer  not  to  move  in  the  matter,  as  he  is  interested, 
but  to  leave  it  to  me  a  northern  and  disinterested  member. 
My  mind  has  always  been  clear  for  keeping  Texas,  and 
while  I  shall  do  nothing  precipitately,  I  mean  to  begin 
forthwith  my  preparations,  and  fortify  myself  for  future 
action  by  report  or  otherwise  with  notes  of  arguments  to 
be  moulded  into  form  on  short  notice.  At  present,  the 
south  is  for  it,  the  east  against,  the  west  I  don't  know  how 
it  stands,  the  middle  states,  their  democrats  at  any  rate,  I 
think  I  can  convince  that  it  is  a  great  national  measure  of 
vital  importance  at  least  to  keep  England  from  meddling 
there.  The  Whigs  and  their  papers  oppose  annexation, 
because,  I  presume,  of  their  hostility  to  Tyler's  adminis 
tration,  and  of  their  wish  to  keep  the  presidential  contest 
clear  of  it.  In  the  Tennessee  Legislature  Lewis  tells  me 
the  Whigs  Avith  majorities  in  both  houses  have  put  it  asleep  : 
but  it  will  be  roused  up,  and  they  constrained  to  vote  for 
it,  he  thinks. 

"  Saturday  Dec  jo.  I  dined  yesterday,  ex  officio  I  sup 
pose,  as  chairman  of  foreign  affairs,  with  all  the  cabinet 
except  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  *  who  does  not  go  into 
company  since  his  son's  execution,  and  all  the  foreign 
ministers  at  Washington  except  the  English  and  Belgian, 

*  John  C.  Spencer,  of  New  York  :  his  son  Philip,  a 
midshipman  in  the  navy,  had  been  recently  executed  at 
sea  upon  a  charge  of  mutiny  on  board  the  man-of-war 
Somers.  Captain  Alexander  S.  Mackenzie  was  the  cap 
tain  of  the  vessel,  and  his  conduct  in  the  matter  has  been 
very  severely  criticised. 

260 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

at  the  Secretary  of  State's  ;  *  a  very  handsome  and  gentle 
manlike  entertainment  quite  creditable  to  our  host,  and 
probably  still  more  to  his  wife,  a  lady  I  never  saw  before, 
but  well  looking,  well  behaved  and  well-addressing.  Min 
isters  of  France,  Brazil,  Mexico,  Austria,  Sardinia,  Holland 
and  Texas  ;  a  small  diplomatic  corps,  only  three  of  whom, 
the  Russian  and  French,  both  with  American,  and  the 
Mexican  have  wives.  I  have  heard  it  hinted  that  since 

Gen.  Jackson  attempted  to  force  Mrs.  on    society 

here,  few  foreign  ministers  bring  wives.  Van  Zandt  the 
Texan  minister,  who  sat  next  to  me,  is  a  pleasing  and  in 
telligent  young  man,  who  says  his  country  is  much  misun 
derstood,  much  less  uncivilized,  he  meant,  than  is  gener 
ally  supposed.  .  .  . 

"  Tuesday  Feb  6.  In  pursuance  of  Senator  Walker's 
note  received  to-day  requesting  me  to  call  on  him  this 
evening,  as  he  is  disabled  by  a  hurt  and  cannot  go  out, 
but  desires  to  make  an  important  communication  to  me, 
I  went,  not  doubting  that  annexation  of  Texas  was  the 
subject.  I  found  Wise  in  Walker's  chamber.  We  talked 
the  matter  over.  Walker  read  a  secret  letter  to  him  dated 
last  November  from  our  charge  d'affaires  in  Texas,  the 
amount  of  which  is  that  if  the  U.  S.  do  not  forthwith  take 
possession  of  Texas,  England  will.  Also  a  late  letter  from 
General  Jackson  to  Walker  in  which  Jackson  promises  to 
write  to  Houston.  Walker  also  read  a  letter  from  some 
one,  whose  name  he  did  not  give,  dated  lately  at  Jackson 
the  capital  of  Mississippi  to  the  effect  that  either  Van  Buren 
or  Clay  will  get  the  votes  for  president  of  several  States, 
as  the  one  or  other  declares  for  Texas.  Upon  the  whole  it 
was  rather  a  poor  conclave  as  to  any  effect.  I  promised 

*  Abel  P.  Upshur,  of  Virginia. 
261 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to  confer  to-morrow  with  Gilmer,  and  see  if  I  can  get  a 
report  from  the  committee  of  foreign  affairs  favorable  to 
the  annexation  which  I  doubt  my  being  able  to  do. 

"  Wednesday  7  February.  Affairs  look  ill  for  annexa 
tion  of  Texas.  The  Committee  of  foreign  affairs  is  against 
it.  It  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  get  a  report  from  them. 
Gilmer,  with  whom  I  conferred  confidentially  is  all  agog 
for  it.  But  I  do  not  see  any  probability  of  it  at  present. 

"Sunday  18  February  1844.  Major  Lewis,  said  to  be 
the  greatest  intriguer  in  Washington,  an  intimate  friend  of 
General  Jackson,  has  paid  me  a  long  visit  to-day,  where  I 
am  confined  at  home  by  a  cold.  Lewis  gave  me  a  full 
view  of  the  Texas  affair,  viz,  Upshur,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  desires  no  action  by  Congress  in  it,  till  his  messenger 
returns,  who  is  expected  soon.  Jackson  has  written  to 
Houston.  Houston  has  changed  his  mind.  He  is  now 
for  annexation.  That  I  doubt,  if  England  tries  to  buy  a 
man  so  predisposed  and  intemperate.  Lewis,  who  is 
friendly  to  Tyler,  says  he  is  unsteady  and  liable  to  im 
pulses.  He  advised  him,  when  he  quarrelled  with  the 
Whigs,  to  take  democrats,  particularly  Cass,  into  his  ad 
ministration,  as  patronage  may  help,  but  cannot  do  all, 
Lewis  thinks.  Tyler  is  passionate,  governable,  vain  and 
fickle,  though  not  wanting  in  good  qualities.  .  .  . 

"  Friday  15  March.  In  conversation  a  few  days  ago 
with  Walker  about  Texas,  I  told  him  that  if  agreeable  to 
the  president  I  would  speak  with  him  on  the  subject.  A 
note  yesterday  from  Walker  informed  me  that  at  ten 
o'clock  to-day  Tyler  would  be  glad  to  see  me  about  it.  I 
went  and  we  had  our  talk,  confidential  as  he  requested 
and  I  promised.  Murphy,  our  charge  d'affaires  there,  has 
exceeded  his  instructions,  Tyler  says,  and  promised  that 
our  troops  shall  be  stationed  so  as  to  ward  off  Mexican 
262 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

hostilities  pending  negotiations,  which,  Tyler  says,  having 
no  authority  to  engage  for,  he  has  disavowed,  and  it  may 
break  off  the  negotiation,  as  Jones  the  Texan  Secretary  of 
State  is  a  New  Yorker,  without  feeling  for  annexation.  If 
however  it  does  not  break  off,  Tyler  expects  in  a  few  days 
another  agent  or  minister  from  Texas  with  a  treaty.  His 
name  is  Henderson.  Van  Zandt  is  the  one  now  here. 
The  treaty  will  annex  Texas  with  her  public  land  given  to 
the  U.  S.,  who  are  to  take  her  and  assume  her  debt  of 
about  ten  millions  of  dollars.  The  English  minister  to 
Texas  Elliott  has  stationed  himself  at  New  Orleans,  to 
communicate  freely  with  Pakenham  the  British  minister 
here  and  the  abolitionists.  Tyler  thinks  that  I  should  not 
move  in  the  committee  of  foreign  affairs  till  he  advises  me 
that  he  has  sent  in  a  treaty  to  the  Senate,  where  he  says  at 
least  37  will  vote  for  it,  and  pending  its  consideration  there 
a  report  from  my  committee  will  be  very  important.  Texas 
will  come  into  our  Union,  or  put  herself  under  England, 
so  he  says.  Houston,  the  president  there,  to  whom  Jack 
son  has  written,  is  for  joining  us.  This,  I  think,  was  about 
the  amount  of  what  Tyler  said.  I  cautioned  him  as  to  the 
great  importance  of  treating  Mexico  with  every  possible 
forbearance  and  respect,  so  as  to  appear  well  before  other 
nations  in  this  affair  ;  but  not  to  know  England  in  it  at  all, 
treat  it  as  altogether  an  American  affair,  and  if  England 
interfered  at  all,  repel  her  at  once  with  decision.  He  per 
fectly  agreed  in  both  points.  I  said  it  might  provoke  or 
justify  England  to  take  Cuba.  He  said  then  he  would 
strike  her  at  once  without  even  waiting  for  Congress.  There 
was  a  part  of  our  talk,  I  forget  how  brought  in,  but  I  think 
by  him,  of  a  party  complexion.  He  said  that  Texas  would 
infallibly  elect  a  democratic  president  and  crush  Clay,  and 
that  he  Tyler  is  the  person  to  bring  it  about,  because  he  is 
263 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

president  without  a  party.  I  said  something  of  its  causing 
a  new  organization  of  parties,  which  he  desired,  professing 
to  be  himself  out  of  view  as  a  presidential  candidate.  Dr. 
Martin  *  tells  me  and  I  believe  from  what  I  heard  his  son 
Robert  say  that  Tyler  is  intensely  eager  and  sanguine  to 
be  the  democratic  candidate  for  president,  and  considers 
Texas  his  stepping-stone.  • 

''Saturday  April  6.  Apprehension  that  France  will 
join  England  in  at  least  protesting  against  our  taking 
Texas  is  the  alleged  reason,  I  believe,  why  Tyler  now 
hastens  to  fill  the  French  mission,  by  appointing  Mr.  R. 
King,  who  seems  to  be  averse  to  go,  after  so  long  and  so 
improperly  leaving  that  place  vacant.  Part  of  the  motive 
may  be  by  offices  to  bring  support  for  his  nomination  to 
the  presidency  on  which  he  is  now  said  to  be  bent.  Silas 
Wright  in  the  North  offered  the  vacant  judgeship  ;  King- 
in  the  South  the  vacant  French  mission,  and  James  K. 
Polk  in  the  West  to  be  offered  the  Russian  mission  in 
place  of  Colonel  Todd  now  there  by  president  Harrison's 
appointment  ;  all  three  prominent  supporters  of  Van  Buren 
for  the  presidency,  to  be  thus  taken  to  Tyler.  Connected 
with  that  devouring  element  of  party  and  personal  politics 
I  may  mention,  although  not  exactly  a  Texas  story,  in 
order  to  show  the  extreme  suspicions  which  the  East  and 
the  South  sometimes  reciprocate  of  each  other,  what  Silas 
Wright  told  me,  in,  as  he  called  it  egregious  confidence, 
on  Saturday  the  4.  February,  at  dinner  at  Hulseman  the 
Austrian  minister's.  An  effort  had  been  making,  Mr. 
Wright  said,  for  a  fortnight,  to  his  knowledge  for  a  week, 
by  Upshur  to  prevail  on  the  slaveholding  members  to 


*  I  presume  that  this  refers  to  the  Dr.  Martin  who  was 
for  some  years  Chief  Clerk  in  the  State  Department. 
264 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

withdraw  from  Congress  under  alleged  desertion  of  their 
cause  by  the  northern  democratic  and  other  members,  by 
which  secession  Tyler  was  to  become  the  southern  candi 
date  for  the  presidency.  I  disbelieve  any  such  scheme. 
But  as  Calhoun  has  withdrawn  Tyler  may  flatter  himself 
that  he  must  be  the  candidate,  and  some  think  that  Upshur 
would  be  likely  to  promote  suclv  a  secession  and  such  a 
nomination. 

' '  Wednesday  24.  April  (after  mentioning  another  mat 
ter)  I  also  conferred  with  Tyler  about  Texas,  and  about 
the  Austrian,  Belgian,  Dutch  and  English  missions  want 
ing  appropriations  for  outfits  should  changes  in  them  take 
place.  He  sent  a  note  on  the  subject  by  me  to  Calhoun, 
with  whom  I  conferred  on  the  3  subjects  and  Texas. 

"Monday  6.  May  '44.  Since  my  last  entry  my  occupa 
tion  with  the  Texas  question  has  been  such  that  I  have 
had  no  time  to  note  any  occurrences  in  this  book.  My 
report  was  suppressed  in  the  committee  of  foreign  affairs 
by  the  votes  of  the  2  northern  democrats  Williams  of 
Massachusetts  and  Stetson  of  New  York  (Mr.  Samuel 
Beardsley  who  began  the  session  as  a  member  of  that 
committee  withdrawing  Mr.  Lemuel  Stetson  was  appointed 
in  his  place)  with  the  3  Western  Whigs.  Between  Clay's 
adherents  and  Van  Buren's  my  report  for  annexation  was 
voted  down  and  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  withdraw  and 
publish  it  on  my  own  responsibility,  as  I  did  in  the  Globe 
of  the  first  of  May  and  with  happy  results,  for  it  appeared 
in  the  nick  of  time,  and  eight  thousand  copies  by  private 
subscription  have  been  ordered  at  the  Globe  office,  besides 
two  thousand  at  the  office  of  the  Spectator's.  My  inter 
course  personal  and  official  with  Calhoun  as  Secretary  of 
State  has  been  intimate,  and  with  Tyler  quite  kind — much 
more  so  than  it  was.  It  was  yesterday  settled  between 
'  265 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Calhoun  and  me,  jumping  in  judgment,  that  if  the  Senate 
reject  the  treaty  of  Texas,  I  am  to  move  it  embodied  in  a 
bill  in  the  house,  on  which  subject  I  am  to  confer  with 
Tyler  to-morrow  morning.  Calhoun  has  committed  a 
great  blunder  by  vindicating  slavery  in  a  letter  to  Paken- 
ham,  and  Van  Buren  a  greater  by  publishing  a  letter 
against  immediate  annexation,  when  nearly  all  his  ad 
herents  are  committed,  with  most  of  the  democratic  presses 
for  it.  Calhoun,  with  superior  talents,  is  extremely  sec 
tional  and  southern.  I  cannot  guess  how  Van  Buren 
made  such  a  blunder.  I  think  they  are  both  demolished 
— felo  de  se. 

"  Tuesday  7.  May,  4  P.M.  I  had  my  interview  with 
Tyler  this  morning.  We  talked  the  Texas  business  over, 
and  he  agreed  to  my  suggestions.  But  not  having  heard 
of  them  before  from  Calhoun,  said  he'd  think  of  them  and 
let  me  know  in  a  day  or  two.  He  talks  big  always,  and  I 
believe  is  almost  beside  himself  with  wish  to  run  for  the 
presidency,  though  nothing  on  that  subject  passed  be 
tween  us.  Afterwards  I  called  on  Calhoun  and  informed 
him  of  my  interview  with  Tyler.  Calhoun  told  me  that 
he  will  abide  by  Texas,  and  not  be  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency. 

"  Saturday  May  18.  This  morning  in  tete-a-tete  with 
Calhoun  he  assured  me  that  he  has  long  relinquished  all 
idea  of  the  presidency  for  himself,  and  came  to  the  depart 
ment  of  state  merely  to  accomplish  great  national  objects, 
Texas  and  Oregon,  with  none  but  patriotic  motives,  which 
alone  he  says,  have  governed  his  public  life.  I  told  him 
that  I  have  long  considered  the  presidency  vulgar  ambi 
tion,  that  a  statesman's  reputation  may  go  to  history  on 
much  better  reliance.  He  says  he  had  retired,  and  means 
to  write  on  government,  that  he  had  differed  with  Jackson 
266 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

because  he  required  flattery  as  Tyler  does,  and  that  he, 
Calhoun,  never  flattered  any  one.  He  means  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  Tyler's  appointments.  Calhoun  thinks 
that  abuse  of  the  appointing  power  is  ruining  this  country, 
and  will  infallibly  do  it,  if  continued  as  practised  by  Van 
Buren,  unless  checked  by  some  great  chief  magistrate  ; 
that  no  one  has  yet  shown  what  a  noble  government  ours 
is,  if  administered  as  it  may  and  should  be.  In  this  way 
he  talked  well,  but  ended  as  usual  if  not  invariably  by 
arguing  the  absolute  necessity  of  slavery  to  balance  de 
mocracy,  which,  if  unabated,  will  always  oppress  the 
poor,  the  ignorant  and  low. 

"  Sunday  ig  May.  Yesterday  I  dined  with  Calhoun  at 
what  he  called  a  Texas  dinner,  and  therefore  make  a 
minute  of  the  company.  They  were  Senators  Woodbury, 
Walker,  Sevier,  Fulton,  with  Dixon  H.  Lewis,  Pinckney, 
Henderson,  one  of  the  Texas  envoys,  without  the  others, 
Isaac  Van  Zandt,  two  young  men  whose  names  I  forget 
who  I  believe  are  Texans,  and  Calhoun' s  son.  Texas  was 
the  only  topic.  All  were  in  high  hopes  of  annexation,  and 
having  no  body  to  contradict,  we  carried  all  before  us. 
How  much  littleness  there  is  with  all  greatness  !  Men  the 
most  eminent  have  their  great  infirmities,  which  is  remark 
ably  the  case  with  Calhoun. 

"  Monday  June  3.  Mr.  Dale  Owen,  one  of  the  Indiana 
delegation  in  Congress  and  I  went  together  yesterday  from 
Sullivan's  where  we  dined,  and  spent  an  hour  with  Van 
Zandt  the  Texas  charge  d'affaires,  apparently  a  sensible, 
prudent,  rather  young  man,  evidently  anxious  for  annexa 
tion.  He  told  us  of  the  plan  in  present  agitation,  which 
Calhoun  whom  I  spent  an  hour  alone  with  immediately 
leaving  Van  Zandt  confirmed  to  me  :  for  Tyler,  whenever 
the  Senate  either  reject  the  Texas  treaty  or  lay  it  on  the 
267 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

table,  to  send  a  full  open  message  to  the  house  to  serve  as 
an  appeal  to  the  people  on  that  subject,  when  Congress 
adjourn.  Then  some  fit  person  will  be  sent  there  as  our 
representative  :  Murphy  our  present  charge  d'affaires 
seems  not  to  be  ;  and  as  the  treaty  is  in  force  for  6  months, 
that  is  till  the  12  October,  till  when  it  is  ours  to  ratify  if 
the  Senate  will,  the  people  are  to  be  appealed  to  every 
where  to  condemn  Clay,  Benton  and  Van  Buren's  opposi 
tion  to  immediate  annexation.  The  then  remaining  and 
resulting  and  all  important  question  is  whether  Tyler  shall 
convoke  Congress  in  special  session  early  in  September, 
supposing  that  the  minority  in  which  Texas  is  in  both 
houses  may  become  then  a  majority  by  means  of  popular 
will  on  that  subject.  This  plan  is  all  clean  and  good  but 
for  Tyler's  desire  to  be  elected  president,  for  which  he  is 
fomented  by  crowds  of  vulgar  fellows,  deluding  him  to  get 
places.  But  for  this  the  proposed  plan  is  excellent  to 
carry  Texas  and  defeat  Clay  by  the  same  blow.  But 
whether  Tyler  will  relinquish  his  utterly  desperate  chance 
of  nomination  I  doubt.  If  he  does  not  the  fearful  responsi 
bility  of  losing  Texas  will  rest  on  Tyler,  not  Clay." 

No  more  of  this  diary  is  preserved,  and  shortly 
after  the  latest  entry  Congress  adjourned.  From 
other  sources  it  is  apparent  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  con 
sidered  the  ensuing  elections  a  direct  expression 
of  the  popular  will  in  favor  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  His  diary  has  shown  that  the  annexation- 
ists  had  planned  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  people 
from  the  adverse  Congress.  In  pursuance  of  this 
plan,  not  only  did  he  make  his  canvass  as  a  thor 
ough-going  advocate  of  immediate  annexation,  but 
268 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

he  reminds  us  that  Polk  did  the  same  thing,  and 
notes  how,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress,  the 
first  vote  on  the  subject  showed  that  the  elections 
had  changed  many  votes  and  had  shifted  the 
ascendency  in  Congress. 

Early  in  December  he  introduced  from  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  a  joint  resolution 
for  annexation,  and  on  January  3,  1845,  m  pur~ 
suance  of  a  vote  in  a  Democratic  caucus  the 
night  before,  he  moved  to  go  into  committee  of 
the  whole  to  take  up  the  resolution.  This  was 
agreed  to  by  107  to  63.  He  opened  the  debate 
in  a  temperate  speech,  advocating  the  measure 
as  one  of  prime  national  importance,  and  fol 
lowed  it  in  its  course  through  the  House  with 
care.  On  January  25,  by  a  vote  of  120  to  98, 
similar  resolutions,  moved  as  an  amendment  by 
Mr.  Milton  Brown,  were  passed  and  sent  to 
the  Senate.  Here  they  met  with  bitter  opposi 
tion,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  writes  that  Mr.  Barrow, 
of  Louisiana,  threatened  at  one  time  that  his 
side  "  would  prevent  the  passage  of  the  resolu 
tions  by  speaking  till  the  4th  of  March."  It  was 
only  on  the  last  day  of  February  that  the  resolu 
tions  as  amended  were  returned  to  the  House,  and 
the  Globe  newspaper  and  many  persons  doubted 
the  possibility  of  securing  the  concurrence  of  the 
House  in  the  rush  and  confusion  of  the  last  four 
days  of  Congress.  It  was  a  moment  of  intense  ex- 
269 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

citement,  but  the  "  friends  of  Texas"  triumphed 
in  the  end.  Of  these  last  scenes  Mr.  Ingersoll 
writes, — 

"  I  succeeded,  after  some  disappointments,  in  at  last  gain 
ing  the  floor  to  move  that  the  Senate  amendment  should 
be  committed  to  the  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state 
of  the  Union,  and  contrary  to  my  almost  invariable  prac 
tice  and  avowed  prepossessions  moreover  moved  the  pre 
vious  question." 

The  Senate  amendment  was  concurred  in  by  a 
vote  of  132  to  76. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  one  of  those  who  did  not 
expect  war  as  a  consequence  of  annexation,  and  he 
seems  to  have  always  thought  that  it  would  not 
have  arisen  but  for  the  disturbing  influence  of  the 
European  powers.  When  it  did  come,  and  even 
earlier,  upon  the  report  of  bodies  of  Mexican 
troops  nearing  Matamoras,  he  advised  ^  President 
Polk  to  order  General  Taylor  to  cross  the  Rio 
Grande  and  "  crush  the  invaders  on  their  own 
soil,"  and  he  favored  all  measures  for  the  earnest 
prosecution  of  the  war.  He,  of  course,  opposed 
strongly  the  Wilmot  proviso. 

Oregon,  also,  fell  within  the  special  domain  of 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  committee,  but  that  body  was  again 
against  him  upon  this  subject,  and  in  the  Twenty- 
Eighth  Congress  he  had  to  report  a  resolution  that 
it  was  then  inexpedient  to  give  notice  of  termina- 
270 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

tion  of  the  joint  occupation.  He,  however,  of 
course  spoke  in  favor  of  the  notice,  and  asserted 
most  strongly  the  superiority  of  the  American  title 
to  that  "  Titan  region  of  prodigious  growth." 

In  the  next  Congress  the  committee  was  again 
against  him,  but  by  some  chance61  a  resolution  in 
favor  of  notice  was  gotten  through  it  and  reported, 
and  finally  passed  both  Houses  of  Congress  in  a 
modified  form.  During  the  debate  Mr.  Ingersoll 
reproached62  the  Southern  members  with  their  op 
position,  and  expressed  his  regret  to  see  a  power 
ful  Southern  combination  against  the  first  proposi 
tion  to  add  territory  to  the  Northern  States,  when 
already  in  our  history  three  territorial  acquisitions 
had  been  made,  all  adding  immensely  to  the  power 
and  influence  of  the  Southern  States.  His  intense 
Americanism  made  him  an  ardent  supporter  of  his 
country's  rights,  and  he  is  probably  to  be  classed 
as  a  54°  40'  man.  The  point,  however,  which  he 
most  particularly  emphasized  in  the  debates  was 
the  almost  entire  absence  of  any  basis  for  the  Eng 
lish  claim.  That  the  claims  neither  of  this  country 
nor  of  England  were  "  clear  and  indisputable"  is 
as  certain  as  anything  can  be,  but  our  claim  seems 
to  have  been  vastly  the  better  one  and  quite  as 
strong  as  such  claims  often  are.  Mr.  Adams,  with 
his  long  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  events  con 
cerned,  supported  our  action  in  the  main,  and  par 
ticularly  the  notice  of  termination.  And  Mr. 
271 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Winthrop,  who  opposed  the  notice  and  stated  at 
one  time  that  he  thought  neither  party  had  any 
really  valid  title,  stated  63  also  that  he  thought  that 
"  the  American  title  to  Oregon  is  the  best  now  in 
existence."  Is  it  to  be  wondered  that,  with  a  lead 
ing  opponent  making  so  pregnant  an  admission, 
others  should  take  the  view  that  this  best  title 
should  be  insisted  upon  ? 

With  the  later  steps  in  the  Oregon  dispute  it  is 
not  likely  that  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  any  connection, 
and,  indeed,  in  the  earlier  debates  on  Oregon,  as 
well  as  on  other  occasions,  he  had  expressed  the 
opinion  that  the  treaty-making  power  is  not  com 
petent  to  yield  up  any  part  of  the  territory  of  the 
United  States.  He  complains,  moreover,  in  an 
unfinished  writing  that  Mr.  Polk  and  Mr.  Buchanan 
allowed  him  very  little  knowledge  of  foreign  nego 
tiations,  far  less  than  he  had  had  under  the  pre 
ceding  administration. 

"  My  constant  official  intercourse  with  him  [Calhoun]," 
he  writes,  "was  so  free  that  I  found  him  as  Secretary  of 
State,  with  a  president  with  whom  I  had  neither  personal  nor 
party  intimacy,  both  more  familiar,  imparting  and  satisfac 
tory  than  their  successors,  president  Polk  and  his  Secretary 
of  State  Mr.  Buchanan,  both  of  my  party  and  my  friends, 
but  shy,  secret  if  not  timid,  and  reserved.  As  head  of  the 
committee  supposed  to  be  in  daily  confidential  communi 
cation  with  them  concerning  foreign  affairs,  and  fortified 
confidentially  with  Executive  plans,  measures,  motives, 
272 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  expectations,  I  was  debited  in  Congress  with  much 
more  than  they  ever  let  me,  or  even  perhaps  let  each  other, 
know  and  expected  and  constrained  by  my  Executive 
superiors  to  maintain,  perform  and  explain  what  I  knew 
no  more  of  than  almost  every  body  else." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  held  no  very  high  opinion  of  Mr. 
Polk  in  general,  and  in  another  place  has  written 
of  him  as  follows  : 

"  He  had  served  with  ability  as  chairman  of  the  com 
mittee  of  ways  and  means,  in  the  house  of  Representatives, 
and  as  speaker  of  that  body  in  difficult  times  ;  and  he  was 
elected  Governor  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  overcoming  a 
majority  there  generally  prevalent  against  his  party.  But  his 
indefatigable  industry  and  superior  talent  for  what  is  called 
stump  speaking  carried  him  through  an  arduous  contest 
with  unexpected  success.  As  I  believe  he  was  the  first,  so 
I  hope  he  may  be  the  last,  president  excelling  in  that 
derogatory  talent  for  soliciting  the  multitude.  In  a  country 
where  common  elocution  is  so  cheap  as  to  be  nearly  uni 
versal,  that  condescension  to  the  meanest  degree  of  ora 
tory,  may  be  tolerated  in  aspirants  for  less  eminent  places, 
but  is  apt,  as  in  Mr.  Folk's  instance,  to  disqualify  for  more 
dignified  position.  With  no  superior  for  that  impromptu, 
often  captivating  but  mostly  vapid  declamation,  the  prac 
tice  as  I  thought,  contributed,  with  other  defects,  to  deprive 
him  of  all  elevation  of  thought  and  action.  His  delight 
was  to  tell  of  stump  contests  and  exploits,  to  prefer  the 
intimacy  of  those  who  preferred  them  to  that  of  superior 
men  in  education,  intelligence  and  deportment,  to  joke 
and  laugh  with  political  opponents  in  low  bred  relations  of 
such  adventures.  While  Texas  and  its  resulting  Mexican 
is  273 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

warfare  associated  president  Folk's  name  and  administra 
tion  with  some  of  the  brightest  and  most  impressive  occur 
rences  of  his  country,  he  was  far  below  their  lofty  level. 
His  family  was  respectable,  his  education  only  tolerable. 
Except  politics  he  had  very  little  information,  no  turn  for 
literature,  science,  polite  refinement  or  social  elegance. 
And  above  all  it  is  a  common  mistake  to  consider  him 
resolute  ;  he  was  not  firm  either  personally  or  for  measures. 
But  having  witnessed  the  wonders  Jackson  achieved  by  that 
natural  endowment,  president  Polk  affected  it,  inducing 
many  to  believe  it  his  nature  too.  Still  clearheaded, 
laborious,  well  disposed,  and  instinctively  patriotic,  his 
chief  recreation  was  incessant  study  of  constitutional  prob 
lems  and  merely  current  political  questions — for  the  great 
science  of  politics  he  had  no  inclination." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  of  the  opinion,  which  was  en 
tertained  by  a  large  number  of  eminent  public 
men,  that  all  our  disputes  of  this  date  with  Eng 
land  were  managed  with  too  little  insistence  on 
American  rights ;  and  he  always  held  that  Mr. 
Webster  in  particular  was  far  too  willing  to  yield 
under  the  dogged  persistence  and  very  liberal 
claims  of  the  English.  That  great  man  has  left 
such  a  mark  on  American  affairs,  and  is  so  de 
servedly  held  very  high  in  American  esteem,  that 
the  mere  weight  of  his  name  almost  carries  con^ 
viction,  but  contemporaries,  of  course,  looked  upon 
him  differently.  Mr.  Ingersoll,  for  instance,  had 
first  met  him  as  the  bitter  opponent  of  the  war  of 
1812  and  as  a  threatener  of  secession;  and  he,  of 
274 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

course,  could  not  forget  this,  when  Mr.  Webster 
later  came  to  be  par  excellence  the  upholder  of 
every  Federal  power.  He  held  that  in  the  case 
of  the  Caroline  and  in  the  Ashburton  treaty  Mr. 
Webster  yielded  far  more  than  the  English  were 
entitled  to,  and  that  in  the  conduct  of  the  Caroline 
dispute  his  easy  compliance  tended  far  more  to 
produce  war  than  to  avert  it.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  review  the  facts  of  that  case  to  some  extent. 

In  December,  1837,  at  the  time  of  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  Canadian  rebellion,  a  band  of  the 
Canadians  took  refuge  on  Navy  Island  in  the 
Niagara  River,  near  the  Canadian  shore.  Here 
they  were  aided  and  provisions  at  least  furnished 
them  from  our  side  of  the  river.  In  these  opera 
tions  a  small  steamer,  the  Caroline,  was  used, 
which  was  partly  manned  by  Americans,  and  this 
the  English  determined  to  destroy.  They  ex 
pected  to  find  her  at  Navy  Island,  but  did  actually 
find  her  moored  at  Schlosser  on  our  side.  The 
officer  in  charge,  however,  none  the  less  at  once 
attacked  and  destroyed  the  vessel.  In  the  conflict 
an  American  named  Durfee  was  killed,  and  the 
Caroline  was  then  sent  a  mass  of  flames  over 
the  falls  of  Niagara.  Public  feeling  in  our  country 
went  at  once  to  fever  heat,  and  Mr.  Forsyth  called 
on  the  British  minister,  Mr.  Fox,  for  redress. 
But,  though  the  British  did  in  a  loose  way  justify 
the  act,  they  did  not  avow  it;  on  the  contrary, 
275 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  American  minister  became  weary  in  trying  to 
get  them  to  do  so.  As  late  as  three  years  after 
wards,  near  the  end  of  1840,  Mr.  Forsyth  once 
more  wrote  Mr.  Fox  calling  his  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  British  government  had  not  commu 
nicated  its  decision. 

But  about  this  time  the  affair  assumed  a  very 
different  face,  owing  to  the  arrest  by  the  authori 
ties  of  New  York,  under  an  indictment  for  mur 
der,  of  a  Canadian  named  Alexander  McLeod, 
who  had  loudly  boasted  of  having  been  concerned 
in  killing  one  of  the  "  damned  Yankees,"  and  who 
then  foolishly  came  over  to  our  side.  In  a  few 
days  Mr.  Forsyth  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Fox, 
calling  for  McLeod's  release,  on  the  ground  that 
the  attack  on  the  Caroline  was  "  a  public  act  of 
persons  in  her  Majesty's  service,"  and  that  he 
was  not  therefore  amenable  to  trial.  Mr.  Forsyth 
reminded  Mr.  Fox  that  the  United  States  had  no 
authority  to  release  a  man  held  by  one  of  the 
States  to  answer  for  a  violation  of  State  law,  and 
expressly  declined  to  admit  the  principle  of  inter 
national  law  asserted  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  said,  the 
legal  prosecution  of  McLeod  and  the  application 
to  his  government  for  satisfaction  could  both  go 
on  at  once. 

Here  the  matter  ended,  so  far  as  Mr.  Forsyth 
was  concerned ;  but  General  Harrison  had  been  in 
office  but  a  week,  when  the  new  Secretary  of  State, 
276 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Mr.  Webster,  received  from  Mr.  Fox  a  most  im 
perious  demand  for  McLeod's  release,  coupled 
with  a  threat  of  the  serious  consequences  of  a  re 
fusal.  Here  is  where  the  opposition  contended 
that  Mr.  Webster  made  his  first  error,  for  he  did 
not  resent  at  all  this  insolent  language  and  the 
threat  of  the  British  demand,  and  did  at  once  con 
cede  to  the  full  extent  the  rightfulness  of  their 
claim. 

In  so  doing  there  is  at  least  grave  doubt64 
whether  he  was  right  in  principle,  and  he  certainly 
did  go  directly  counter  to  the  views  maintained  by 
his  predecessor.  But  he  did  more,  and  exerted 
himself  strenuously  to  comply  with  the  British  de 
mand,  even  to  the  extent  of  causing  a  serious  con 
flict  with  the  State  of  New  York.  The  United 
States  Attorney-General  was  sent  to  supervise  the 
matter  in  New  York,  and  the  lawyer  already  ap 
pointed  by  Governor  Seward  to  defend  McLeod 
was  appointed  United  States  District  Attorney  in 
the  district  where  the  trial  was  to  be  held,  so  that 
the  highest  law  officers  of  New  York  were  on  one 
side  of  the  case,  and  on  the  other  was  the  gentle 
man  who  was  United  States  District  Attorney, 
while  the  United  States  Attorney-General  was  to 
take  part  on  the  same  side  in  case  of  need.  Seward 
complained  bitterly  of  all  this,  and  Mr.  Adams 
said65  some  years  afterwards  that  he  had  been 
infinitely  more  apprehensive  of  the  conflict  between 
277 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  United  States  and  New  York  than  of  that  with 
England.  Happily,  as  is  well  known,  the  trial 
ended  in  McLeod's  acquittal ;  but  there  was  for  a 
time  greater  danger  of  war  between  England  and 
the  United  States  than  at  any  time  since  1815. 

Of  course,  Mr.  Webster's  conduct  was  very 
much  criticised,  and  it  is  necessary  to  go  into  the 
matter  closely,  because  it  became  later  the  cause 
of  Mr.  IngersolPs  conflict  with  him.  Mr.  Ingersoll 
always  thought  that  in  the  treaty  of  Washington 
there  was  far  too  much  readiness  to  comply  with 
the  English  demands,  and  that  the  easy-going  con 
duct  of  our  administration  in  the  Caroline  dispute 
contributed  to  the  difficulties  of  the  Ashburton 
negotiation.  Upon  the  case  of  the  Caroline  he 
spoke  at  some  length  in  1841  in  strong  condemna 
tion  of  Mr.  Webster's  course,  and  reviewed  the 
matter66  again  in  1846,  when  speaking  upon  the 
subject  of  the  Oregon  notice.  Upon  this  occasion 
he  said : 

' '  What  he  intended  to  state  now  consisted  of  facts  not 
yet  generally  known,  but  which  would  soon  be  made 
known,  for  they  were  in  progress  of  publication,  and  he 
had  received  them,  in  no  confidence,  from  the  best  au 
thority.  When  McLeod  was  arrested,  General  Harrison 
had  just  died,  and  Mr.  Tyler  was  not  yet  at  home  as  his 
successor.  Mr.  Webster — who  was  de  facto  the  Adminis 
tration — Mr.  Webster  wrote  to  the  Governor  of  New  York, 
with  his  own  hand,  a  letter,  and  sent  it  by  express,  marked 
278 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

'private,'  in  which  the  Governor  was  told  that  he  must 
release  McLeod,  or  see  the  magnificent  commercial  empo 
rium  laid  in  ashes.  The  brilliant  description  given  by  the 
gentleman  from  Virginia  of  the  prospective  destruction  of 
that  city  in  the  case  of  war  was,  in  a  measure,  anticipated 
on  this  occasion.  McLeod  must  be  released,  said  the 
Secretary  of  State,  or  New  York  must  be  laid  in  ashes. 
The  Governor  asked  when  this  would  be  done  ?  The  reply 
was  forthwith.  Do  you  not  see  coming  on  the  waves  of 
the  sea  the  Paixhan  guns  ?  and  if  McLeod  be  not  released, 
New  York  will  be  destroyed.  But,  said  the  Governor,  the 
power  of  pardon  is  vested  in  me,  and  even  if  he  be  con 
victed,  he  may  be  pardoned.  Oh  no,  said  the  Secretary, 
if  you  even  try  him  you  will  bring  destruction  upon  your 
selves.  The  Governor  was  not  entirely  driven  from  his 
course  by  this  representation.  The  next  step  taken  by  the 
Administration  was  to  appoint  a  district  attorney  who  was 
to  be  charged  with  the  defence  of  Alexander  McLeod — 
the  gentleman  who  was  lately  removed  from  office — and  a 
fee  of  five  thousand  dollars  was  put  into  his  hands  for  this 
purpose.  .  .  .  Though  Lord  Ashburton  came  here  with  full 
power  to  adjust  the  Oregon  question,  yet  it  was  adjourned. 
It  was  a  gross  absurdity  thus  to  separate  the  northeastern 
from  the  northwestern  boundary  question.  They  should 
have  been  kept  indivisible.  The  giving  up  of  one  would 
render  more  difficult  the  settlement  of  the  other.  He 
would  call  upon  those  gentlemen  here  who  were  acquainted 
with  the  facts,  to  say  whether  he  was  right  or  not  in  regard 
to  what  he  would  now  state.  Mr.  Webster  sent  a  note  to 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  asking  an  outfit  and 
salary  for  a  special  minister  to  England,  to  settle  the 
Oregon  question.  The  committee  rejected  the  application. 
These  were  facts  which  no  one  would  dispute,  and  he  did 
279 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

not  state  them  from  any  hostility  to  that  gentleman,  whose 
abilities  he  had  always  greatly  admired,  but  with  whom  he 
had  never  agreed  politically  from  the  time  when  he  first 
met  him  in  public  life  thirty-three  years  ago." 

A  debate  upon  this  subject  having  arisen  in 
the  Senate,  Mr.  Dickinson,  of  New  York,  referred 
to  this  speech  of  Mr.  Ingersoll ;  and  Mr.  Webster, 
in  his  reply  in  defence  of  the  treaty  of  Washing 
ton,  indulged  in  such  a  coarse  tirade  upon  Mr. 
Ingersoll  as  has  rarely  been  heard  in  an  elevated 
body.  If  Mr.  Ingersoll's  speech  was  highly 
colored  and  even  exaggerated,  Mr.  Webster's 
reply  was  grossly  coarse  and  in  some  particulars  * 
extremely  uncandid,  to  say  the  least.  He  denied 
having  written  a  certain  letter  of  importance  in 
the  coarsest  language  and  charging  intentional 

*  Mr.  Webster  even  went  so  far  as  to  deny  that  the  ad 
ministration  had  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  trial  of  Mc- 
Leod  ;  but  if  the  answer  of  Mr.  Dickinson  should  fail  to  con 
vince  any  one  upon  this  point,  he  need  only  turn  to  the  pages 
of  the  lives  of  Seward  and  Crittenden  :  Coleman's  Crit- 
tenden,  i.  149-155  ;  Seward's  Seward,  538  :  552.  I  think 
Crittenden' s  letters  show  that  he  by  no  means  approved  of 
the  administration's  position,  and  Seward's  letters  to  Crit 
tenden  certainly  show  that  Seward  thought  he  had  a  friend 
in  Crittenden  as  against  the  administration.  See  also  the 
letters  of  Webster  sent  to  the  House  upon  its  call,  printed 
in  Executive  Documents,  First  Session,  Twenty-Ninth  Con 
gress,  Vol.  vi.,  Doc.  No.  187. 
280 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

falsehood,  while  it  was  clearly  proved  later  that, 
whether  he  had  written  a  letter  or  not,  he  had  at 
least  asked  verbally  what  he  was  charged  with 
having  asked  in  writing;  and  it  is  plain  that  the 
substratum  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  charge  was  true,  and 
that  Mr.  Webster,  in  the  management  of  the  Caro 
line  case,  was  full  of  panicky  fears  of  immediate 
war,  and  tried  his  best  to  influence  Seward  to  dis 
charge  McLeod  by  the  representation  of  these 
dangers.  If  the  events  of  the  day  did  not  them 
selves  establish  that  fact  beyond  peradventure,  evi 
dence  has  since  come  to  light  which  certainly  does 
prove  it.  Mr.  Benton  well  writes  that  the  Caroline 
case  was  one  "  for  an  iron  will,  more  than  for  a 
shining  intellect;  and  iron  will  was  not  the  strong 
side  of  Mr.  Webster's  character.  His  intellect  was 
great;  his  will  small.  His  pursuits  were  civil  and 
intellectual ;  and  he  was  not  the  man,  with  a  goose- 
quill  in  his  hands,  to  stand  up  against  the  British 
empire  in  arms." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  did  not,  of  course,  let  the  matter 
end  with  Mr.  Webster's  attack,  but  proceeded  at 
once  to  seek  for  evidence  of  a  sort  he  could  use  to 
prove  the  truth  of  his  own  speech.  His  main  au 
thority  was  Governor  Seward,*  but  his  information 


*  In  a  private  letter  to  Mr.  Gilpin,  dated  April  8,  1846, 
Mr.  Ingersoll  writes,  "  My  authorities  are  Governor  Sew 
ard,  for  part,  a  record  in  my  possession  in  the  handwriting 
281 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

from  him  had  probably  come  in  the  half-confidence 
of  free  conversation,  and  he  evidently  did  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  use  his  name  in  any  way,  and  was 
thus  badly  handicapped.  While  seeking  for  evi 
dence  he  could  use,  he  learned,  evidently  quite 
unexpectedly  to  himself,  from  papers  in  the  State 
Department,  that  soon  after  Mr.  Tyler's  accession 
to  the  Presidency  the  contingent  fund  had  (con 
trary  to  the  precedents  of  many  years'  standing) 
been  transferred  to  Mr.  Webster's  own  custody; 
that  in  this  way  some  seventeen  thousand  dollars 
in  all  had  been  in  his  hands,  and  large  parts  of  it 
for  a  good  many  months  at  a  time ;  he  also  found 
that  when  Mr.  Webster  left  office  there  was  an 
apparent  balance  of  over  two  thousand  dollars  in 
his  hands,  for  which  there  were  no  vouchers,  and 
which  was  not  accounted  for  for  nearly  two  years, 
and  then  only  when  he  was  informed  that  the 
accounts  required  to  be  published ;  he  found  also 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Webster  from  one  F.  O.  J.  Smith 
from  Portland,  Maine,  marked  "  private,"  which, 
after  expressing  the  writer's  gratification  at  the 


of  Mr.  Adams  for  the  rest,  and  my  facts  are  certain,  tho' 
I  may  have  immaterially  misstated  what  Gov.  Seward 
told  me."  Until  I  saw  this  letter  I  supposed  that  Mr. 
Crittenden  was  his  chief  authority,  and  the  later  course  of 
the  controversy  does  point  to  him  for  authority  on  some 
points. 

282 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

new    mode   adopted    of  settling   a   long-standing 
dispute,  went  on  as  follows  : 

"Considering  the  matter  settled,  I  presume  you  can  feel 
justified  in  enabling  me  to  fulfil  certain  assurances  which 
I  made  to  a  few  individuals  at  different  points  in  this  State, 
whose  services  and  influence  I  had  occasion  to  resort  to, 
in  order  to  adjust  the  tone  and  direction  of  the  party 
presses  and  through  them  of  public  sentiment,  to  the  pur 
poses  so  desirable  of  accomplishment  under  your  adminis 
tration.  For  my  own  services  you  can  also  make  such 
allowance  from  the  contingent  fund  as  you  may  deem 
proper,  merely  remarking  that  all  that  was  contemplated 
in  my  original  letters  to  you  of  May,  1841,  on  the  subject, 
so  far  as  Maine  and  the  voice  of  the  people  are  concerned, 
has  been  happily  realized.  To  the  individuals  alluded  to 
above,  three  in  number,  I  gave  an  assurance  that  in  the 
event  of  a  settlement  of  the  boundary,  they  should  be 
allowed  a  reasonable  remuneration  for  their  time  and  inci 
dental  expenses — and  I  should  like  to  be  able  to  remit 
them  $100,  or  $125  each,  if  in  my  power.  Nevertheless,  I 
assumed  no  authority  to  bind  your  department,  in  any 
official  manner  on  the  subject ;  but  the  whole  rests  in  my 
confidential  intercourse  with  them,  and  I  leave  it,  after 
stating  the  fact,  wholly  at  your  discretion.  I  presume  the 
contingent  fund  will  be  ample,  and  your  control  in  it 
ample,  to  do  whatever  you  think  just. 

"  I  send  herewith  a  bill  for  a  voucher,  with  entire  con 
sent  for  you  to  fill  the  blanks  as  you  may  deem  proper." 

After  discovering  these  matters,  Mr.  Ingersoll, 
without   consultation  with   any  one,  as   he  later 
283 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

stated,  rose  in  the  House  on  April  9  and  asked 
leave  to  make  a  personal  explanation.  He  then 
read  a  statement  charging  Mr.  Webster  with  per 
sonal  use  of  the  public  funds,  with  corrupting  the 
public  presses,  and  with  having  left  office  a  de 
faulter,  and  introduced  resolutions  calling  on  the 
President  for  an  account  of  all  payments  from  the 
contingent  fund  during  the  period  concerned,  and 
for  any  letters  in  regard  to'  a  special  mission  to 
Great  Britain  during  the  Twenty-Seventh  Con 
gress. 

After  an  extended  debate  the  resolutions  were 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  136  to  28,  but  Mr.  Polk 
declined  to  comply  with  the  request  as  to  the 
secret  service  expenditures,  being  of  opinion  that 
they  should  be  kept  strictly  secret  except  in  cases 
of  impeachment.  He  added  that  there  were  no 
letters  on  the  files  in  regard  to  the  special  mis 
sion,  and  transmitted  those  to  persons  in  New 
York  concerning  the  McLeod  case.  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  then,  in  answer  to  Mr.  Webster's  denial  of 
having  sent  a  note  to  the  Committee  on  For 
eign  Affairs  asking  for  a  special  minister  to 
England  to  settle  the  Oregon  dispute,  pro 
duced  by  leave  of  the  House  the  original  min 
utes  of  that  committee  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr. 
Adams,  in  which  was  a  distinct  memorandum  of 
a  "communication  from  the  Secretary  of  State 
to  Mr.  Cushing  and  Mr.  Adams"  asking  for  a 
284 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

special  mission  *  to  Great  Britain,  which  had  been 
refused. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  next  reviewed  in  a  few  words 
the  evidence  then  known  upon  his  allegation 
that  Webster  had  in  a  panic  tried  to  interfere 
with  the  authorities  of  New  York  to  prevent  the 
trial  of  McLeod,  and  certainly  substantiated  the 
essence  of  it.  He  also  reiterated  the  charges  of 
corruption,  and  there  left  the  subject.  He  had 
been  advised  that  it  was  now  for  Webster  or  his 
friends  to  move  in  the  matter,  but  that  gentleman 
did  not  see  fit  to  ask  for  an  investigation,  and 
merely  asserted  on  April  22  that  the  imputations 
were  purely  wanton  and  slanderous.  Mr.  Inger 
soll  then  proceeded  on  April  27  to  detail  the 
charges  at  length,  but,  owing  to  the  later  course  of 
the  matter,  I  do  not  see  that  there  is  any  need  to 
go  into  these  details  here.  After  an  acrimonious 
discussion,  in  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  charged 
with  nearly  all  the  improprieties  in  the  calendar, 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  investigate  his 
charges,  and  another  to  investigate  how  he  had 

*  Curtis' s  Webster  (II.  175-177)  prints  a  letter  from 
Webster  to  Everett,  in  which  the  writer  also  speaks  of 
this  intended  mission,  and  of  his  expectation  that  it  would 
be  offered  to  him.  Portions  of  the  letter  bearing  on  the 
subject  are  apparently  omitted  ;  and  von  Hoist  (History 
of  the  United  States  1846-50,  p.  48)  says  that  the  letter 
itself  is  not  in  Webster' s  Private  Correspondence. 
285 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

obtained  his  information  from  the  State  Depart 
ment.  With  this  latter  we  need  not  trouble  our 
selves  here. 

The  other  committee  met,  took  a  good  deal 
of  testimony,  and  finally  four  of  the  five  members 
united  in  a  report  entirely  exonerating  Mr.  Web 
ster,  and  at  the  same  time  explaining  in  smooth 
words  how  naturally  Mr.  Ingersoll  had,  under  the 
circumstances  known  to  him,  come  to  think  as  he 
had.  The  single  member  (Mr.  Brinkerhoff),  in 
his  minority  report,  took  a  very  different  view,  by 
no  means  exonerated  Mr.  Webster,  and  gave  some 
glimpses  of  the  evidence  on  which  the  majority 
had  based  their  report.  That  this  was  scant,  and 
in  some  instances  derived  from  sources  worthy 
of  little  or  no  belief,  is  a  very  moderate  way  of 
expressing  the  matter. 

In  addition,  it  must  be  stated  that  the  evidence 
was  in  reality  ex parte,  and  that  the  committee  had 
started  out  with  the  expectation  of  making  just 
such  a  report  as  they  did.  Mr.  Winthrop,  as  Mr. 
Webster's  friend,  was  evidently  in  close  confidence 
with  the  members  from  the  beginning,  and  seems  6? 
to  have  kept  Mr.  Webster  informed,  and  the  latter 
expressed  his  readiness  to  testify  in  case  of  need, 
but  preferred  to  remain  away,  "  if  the  committee 
appear  to  be  taking  a  just  and  proper  course." 
This  letter  of  his  was  dated  but  a  few  days  after 
the  committee's  appointment,  and  expressed  the 
286 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

opinion  that  the  committee  ought  to  make  merely 
such  a  general  report  as  it  later  did,  though  al 
leging  an  entire  willingness  on  his  part  to  have 
everything  published. 

It  is  not  possible  to-day  to  say  much  more  upon 
this  subject.  Even  such  testimony  as  was  taken  is 
unattainable,*  as  it  was  bound  up  and  sealed  and 
marked  "  confidential"  by  order  of  the  House ;  but 
the  greatest  admirers  of  Mr.  Webster's  career  of 
distinction  and  of  his  splendid  abilities  must  admit 
that  he  had  not  very  high-toned  scruples  in  money 

*  Mr.  Curtis  in  his  Life  of  Webster  (II.  283)  makes  the 
error  of  alleging  that  the  testimony  was  all  printed  in  the 
end,  upon  the  motion  of  the  majority  of  the  committee. 
Such  was  not  the  case.  The  original  report  {Congressional 
Globe,  First  Session,  Twenty-Ninth  Congress,  p.  946)  pro 
posed  to  print  no  part  of  the  testimony  ;  but  the  minority 
report  of  Mr.  Brinkerhoff  having  set  forth  at  large  the 
letter  of  F.  O.  J.  Smith  (ibid.,  p.  947),  the  House  subse 
quently  (ibid.,  988)  ordered  the  testimony  relative  to  the 
charge  of  corrupting  the  press,  which  that  letter  bore  on, 
to  be  printed.  Efforts  were  even  made  by  the  majority  of 
the  committee  to  induce  the  House  to  prevent  Mr.  Brinker 
hoff  from  incorporating  the  Smith  letter  in  his  report.  And 
so  entirely  wrong  is  Mr.  Curtis  that  the  House  later  voted 
down  (ibid.,  999-1000)  a  second  effort  of  Mr.  Brinkerhoff 
to  print  all  the  testimony.  See  also  the  report  of  the  com 
mittee  and  the  fragmentary  testimony  on  the  one  charge  as 
printed  in  Reports  of  Committees,  First  Session,  Twenty- 
Ninth  Congress,  vol.  iii.  Rep.  No.  684. 

2S7 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

matters.  It  was  during  this  discussion  that  some 
members  charged  him  with  being  the  "  pensioned 
agent  of  the  manufacturers,"  and  alleged  that  a 
large  sum  of  money  had  been  raised  by  them  for 
him  ;  and  though  the  charge  as  to  this  fund  was 
at  first  denied,  it  was  soon  admitted  in  its  main 
features.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  public 
man  of  high  honor  would  have  declined  it ;  to  say 
nothing  of  the  frightful  example,  he  could  not  pos 
sibly,  after  accepting  it,  deal  with  matters  of  interest 
to  the  givers  with  an  eye  only  to  the  public  interest. 
But  Mr.  Webster  did  even  worse,  and  in  at  least 
one  later  instance  accepted  68  a  gift  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  from  a  citizen  immediately  after  taking  his 
ground  on  a  subject  of  great  public  moment  in  his 
famous  7th  of  March  speech.  With  these  in 
stances  thus  coming  to  light,  can  there  be  much 
doubt  that  the  financial  weaknesses  of  that  great 
man  were  known,  in  that  general  way  in  which 
such  things  are  known,  to  the  circle  of  those 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  public  men  of  the 
day? 

Whatever  any  one  else  may  think,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
of  course  believed  to  the  end  the  absolute  truth  of 
the  charges  he  had  made,  and  that  the  committee 
had  whitewashed  Mr.  Webster  at  his  expense.  I 
think  it  was  well  understood  at  the  time  that  the 
report  was  due  principally  to  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis, 
the  second  member  on  it ;  and  naturally  Mr.  In- 
288 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

gersoll  never  entirely  forgave  him.  While  the 
controversy  was  at  its  height  a  large  number  of 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  friends  at  home  tendered  him  a 
public  dinner  as  a  mark  of  approval  of  his  con 
duct;  but  he  was  obliged  to  decline  it,  for  reasons 
which  will  best  appear  from  the  correspondence 
upon  the  subject: 

"  PHILADELPHIA  30  April  1846. 

"To  THE  HON.  CHARLES  J.  INGERSOLL: 

"  DEAR  SIR, — A  number  of  your  fellow  citizens  having 
heard  of  your  intention  to  remain  a  few  days  among  them 
are  desirous  to  express  their  respect  for  your  patriotic  ser 
vices  and  confidence  in  your  integrity  as  a  public  and 
private  man.  On  their  behalf  we  have  to  solicit  your  ac 
ceptance  of  a  public  dinner  at  such  time  as  may  be  most 
suitable  with  your  engagements. 

"Without  intending  to  anticipate  or  prejudge  the  future 
decision  of  the  Councils  of  the  Nation,  yet  late  occurrences 
therein  make  this  less  an  act  of  personal  friendship  or  even 
political  association  than  an  expression  of  a  firmly  seated 
and  deeply  cherished  conviction  that  a  Representative  per 
forms  few  duties  more  imperative,  as  none  is  more  certain 
sooner  or  later  to  receive  unequivocal,  and  as  we  believe 
almost  unanimous  approbation,  than  when  he  fearlessly 
and  with  full  sense  of  responsibility  brings  to  light  what  he 
believes  to  be  wrong  in  the  conduct  of  public  agents  how 
ever  exalted  ;  and  demands  the  open  judgment  of  the 
people  upon  their  actions  while  in  office,  not  hesitating 
himself  to  await  the  ultimate  result,  and,  in  so  doing,  to 
submit  his  own  character  and  conduct  to  the  same  ordeal. 
' '  We  are  with  great  respect 

"Your  friends  and  fellow  citizens." 

19  289 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

' '  GENTLEMEN, — There  are  occasions  in  public  life  when 
such  testimonials  as  your  letter  of  invitation  must  be  de 
sirable  counteractions  of  the  abuse  incurred  by  bringing  to 
light  the  misconduct  of  exalted  public  agents,  and  en 
couragement  as  important  to  unswerving  firmness  and 
constancy. 

1 '  I  am  inexpressibly  thankful  to  you,  gentlemen,  for  ap 
proval  so  respectably  subscribed  by  those  indicating,  I 
trust,  the  support  of  the  many  more,  whose  good  will  is 
cherished  as  the  best  reward  of  any  public  service  I  at 
tempt,  and  patent  of  whatever  distinction  I  desire. 

"But  before  I  was  honored  with  your  invitation,  my 
arrangements  were  made  for  leaving  home  to-day  for  the 
seat  of  government,  where  the  subjects  it  refers  to  require 
my  attendance,  besides  the  general  transactions  of  Con 
gress. 

"  And  may  I  not  doubt  also  whether  it  will  not  be  more 
becoming  to  decline  the  compliment  you  so  generously 
proffer  pending  the  ordeal  which  produced  it. 

"  I  hope  that  you  will  allow  me  to  deny  myself  the 
gratification  of  accepting  it,  with  assurances  of  the  grati 
tude  with  which  I  shall  ever  remain,  gentlemen,  your 
much  obliged  and  humble  servant. 

"(Signed)     C.  J.  INGERSOLL. 

"  May  4,  1846. 
"  PHILADA." 

In  the  autumn  of  1846  there  seems  to  have  been 
an  effort  made  by  a  few  Democrats  to  defeat  Mr. 
Ingersoll  for  renomination,  but  it  was  entirely 
unsuccessful,  and  he  was  not  only  renominated,  but 
elected  again  by  a  larger  plurality  than  he  had 
had  two  years  before.  In  the  next  spring,  during 
290 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  last  days  of  the  Twenty-Ninth  Congress,  he 
was  nominated  by  Mr.  Polk  for  the  French 
mission,  a  post  which  he  had  asked  for  and  had 
probably  wanted  for  some  time.  He  was,  how 
ever,  defeated  in  the  Senate,  upon  the  appeal  of 
Mr.  Webster,  who  urged  that  his  confirmation 
would  be  a  sort  of  endorsement  of  the  charges 
against  himself:  this  fact  was  told  one  of  his  sons 
many  years  later  by  an  ex-Senator.  Mr.  Ingersoll 
served  after  this  through  the  Thirtieth  Congress, 
and  then  retired.  He  was  at  the  time  sixty-seven 
years  of  age,  and  probably  felt  that  he  had  lived 
long  enough  on  the  boisterous  seas  of  politics,  and 
was  moreover  doubtless  anxious  to  devote  more 
time  during  his  declining  years  to  the  historical 
work  he  had  taken  up.  His  successor  in  his 
district  was  a  Democrat,  Mr.  John  J.  Robins. 


291 


CHAPTER    IX. 

His  Practice  at  the  Bar — Characteristics  as  a  Lawyer — 
Judge  Sharswood  on — Some  Instances — Qualities  as  an 
Orator — Instances  of  his  Manner — His  Denunciation 
of  an  Overbearing  Judge — The  John  Sergeant  Bar 
Meeting — Personal  Appearance — Habits  of  Exercise  and 
Diet — Dress — Eccentricity — His  Residences — Fond  of 
the  Society  of  Women — Buoyant  Spirits — Mrs.  Maury — 
Religion — His  Americanism — Belief  in  True  Popular 
Government — Interest  in  Napoleonic  History — Joseph 
Bonaparte — Earnest  Advocate  of  Free  Ships,  Free  Goods 
— Declining  Years — Literary  Work — "Second  War" — 
"Recollections" — Other  Works — "African  Slavery  in 
America" — Mr.  Buchanan's  Administration — Outbreak 
of  Secession — His  Views  upon  the  Civil  War — Death. 

THAT  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  for  many  years  a  very 
extensive  practice  at  the  bar  has  been  already 
seen.  From  his  first  case  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1806  until  he  went  to  Congress 
in  1841,  hardly  a  volume  of  reports  is  to  be  found 
without  numbers  of  cases  of  his,  the  only  excep 
tion  being  from  1832  to  1835,  when,  for  some 
reason  I  do  not  understand,  there  are  none.  His 
cases  are  also  frequent  in  the  reports  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  from  1817  to  1829;  and 
after  that  date,  when  he  had  ceased  to  be  District 

292 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Attorney,  several  important  causes  argued  by  him 
are  to  be  found  down  to  1841. 

The  mere  record  of  the  number  of  cases  won 
and  lost  is  no  criterion  of  a  lawyer's  ability ;  but 
I  think  I  can  see  that  in  the  latter  years  of  his 
practice  he  was  less  often  successful  than  formerly, 
from  which  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  probably 
is  that  he  came  in  that  time  of  strong  party  feeling 
to  be  called  in  more  often  in  cases  of  a  desperate 
nature.  His  political  course  presumably  estranged 
from  him  the  great  leaders  in  the  business  world, 
while  the  less  fortunate  were  drawn  to  him, — and 
their  cases  are  not  those  which  succeed.  It  is 
worthy  of  note  that  he  made  the  leading  argument 
for  the  unsuccessful  side  in  the  great  case  of  Bank 
of  Augusta  vs.  Earle  against  Mr.  Webster,  Mr. 
Sergeant,  and  Mr.  D.  B.  Ogden.  This  was  a  very 
important  case, — rather  one  of  politics  or  public 
law  than  of  mere  private  right  between  suitors, — 
and  presented  the  question  whether  the  Federal 
courts  would  enforce  a  contract  made  by  a  cor 
poration  (a  bank)  of  one  State  in  another  State. 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  argument  against  the  power  of  a 
corporation  thus  to  inject  itself  into  another  State 
than  that  chartering  it  was  certainly  a  very  able 
one,  and  he  evidently  entered  into  the  case  with 
intense  interest. 

The  prevailing  view  to-day  probably  is  that  the 
decision  was  both  right  and  desirable,  but  such 
293 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

questions  were  then  far  more  open  to  doubt  in  the 
public  mind  than  now ;  and  the  thoughtful  ob 
server  may  well  question,  in  view  of  the  unrest 
now  so  prevalent  and  the  so  general  feeling  that 
organized  capital  has  too  much  power,  whether 
our  country  might  not  have  been  more  sound  at 
the  core  if  some  of  the  most  important  decisions 
had  gone  the  other  way.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  evi 
dently  disappointed  at  losing  this  case,  and  wrote 
to  Mr.  Gilpin  to  that  effect,  but  was  told  in  reply 
that  he  should  not  be  worried  at  his  inability  to 
defeat  a  corporation,  when  the  whole  country  had 
to  bear  them,  as  Sindbad  had  his  burden. 

The  general  nature  of  his  practice  and  his  quali 
ties  as  a  lawyer  have  been  summed  up  by  Chief- 
Justice  Sharswood,  and  I  cannot  do  better  than 
quote  the  language  of  so  competent  an  authority. 
In  an  obituary  notice  read  before  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  he  said, — 

"He  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and 
soon  established  a  character  at  the  bar  which  insured  him 
large  business,  and  what  he  prized  more,  extended  reputa 
tion.  His  first  case  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  was  in  1810,  King  vs.  Delaware  Insurance  Com 
pany,  6  Cranch,  71, — an  important  insurance  cause  ;  and 
thence  down  to  the  period  of  his  retiring  from  the  bar, 
scarcely  a  volume  of  the  reports  of  the  decisions  of  the 
highest  Federal  tribunal  is  without  contributions  from  his 
learning  and  ability.  Subjects  of  mercantile  and  prize  law 
294 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

largely  engaged  his  attention,  and  the  case  of  Evans  vs. 
Eaton,  3  Wheaton,  404,  upon  a  very  difficult  and  nice 
question,  arising  under  the  patent  laws  of  Congress,  would, 
if  it  stood  alone,  be  a  lasting  monument  to  his  learning, 
ingenuity  and  legal  acumen.  The  reports  of  the  Federal 
Courts  of  this  Circuit,  as  well  as  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Pennsylvania,  are  replete  with  evidences  of  an  extensive 
and  important  practice,  sustained  on  his  part  by  unwearied 
industry  and  patient  research.  It  may  be  stated  as  a 
matter  of  curiosity,  that  the  first  case  argued  by  him  as 
counsel,  which  appears  in  the  Reports  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Pennsylvania,  is  Fox  vs.  Wilcocks,  I  Binn.  194, 
decided  in  1806.  Occasionally,  too,  his  services  were 
called  for  in  the  highest  tribunals  of  our  sister  and  neigh 
bor  States.  But  it  was  in  the  Federal  Courts  of  this  Cir 
cuit,  under  the  presidency  of  those  distinguished  jurists 
Bushrod  Washington,  Henry  Baldwin,  Richard  Peters,  and 
Joseph  Hopkinson,  that  his  severest  professional  labors 
were  undergone,  and  his  richest  rewards  earned.  .  .  . 

"The  pages  of  Report  books,  however,  furnish  but 
scanty  and  unsatisfactory  evidence  of  the  professional 
career  of  a  lawyer.  It  often  happens  that  his  most  re 
markable  efforts,  his  most  eloquent  appeals,  as  well  as  his 
most  able  and  learned  arguments  live  only  in  the  memory 
of  contemporaries,  who  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  be 
present  on  the  occasion  which  called  them  forth.  Those 
only  who  have  witnessed  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  the  trial  of  an 
important  cause,  extending,  as  often  happened,  through 
several  days — his  tact  in  so  opening  it  as  to  produce  a 
favorable  impression  on  the  jury — the  admirable  order 
and  arrangement  with  which  the  testimony  was  brought 
forward — his  skill  in  skirmishing  with  his  antagonist  on 
questions  of  evidence — and  the  earnest,  faithful  and  ex- 
295 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

haustive  summing  up  of  the  merits  of  his  client's  case — 
the  humor,  sarcasm,  irony  and  invective  with  which  he 
assailed  the  positions  of  his  adversary,  can  have  any  ade 
quate  idea  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  power  as  an  advocate.  The 
writer  of  this  notice  was  present  on  an  occasion  when,  at 
the  conclusion  of  one  of  his  most  brilliant  efforts,  a  crowded 
bar  could  not  be  restrained  by  the  proprieties  of  the  place 
from  a  momentary  expression  of  admiration  and  applause." 

As  to  the  particular  methods  he  adopted  of 
catching  the  jury's  attention  and  invoking  their 
sympathies,  I  find  one  instance  in  which  he  asked 
the  court  for  leave  for  his  client  (the  prisoner)  to 
be  taken  from  the  room,  and  then  proceeded  in  an 
impressive  way  to  inform  the  jury  and  prove  to 
them  that  his  client  was  unsound  in  mind  upon 
certain  subjects.  In  another  case,  while  represent 
ing  a  Lieutenant  Jones  on  trial  for  piracy,  when 
something  seems  to  have  slipped  from  the  prose 
cution  as  to  holding  him,  in  the  event  of  an  ac 
quittal,  for  trial  upon  another  indictment  growing 
out  of  the  same  offence,  Mr.  Ingersoll  opened  his 
speech  for  the  defence  by  saying  that  it  was  told 
that,  upon  the  explosion  of  the  infernal  machine  in 
Paris,  after  some  of  those  arrested  had  been  pun 
ished,  the  judges  had  asked  what  was  to  be  done 
with  the  rest — should  they  be  discharged  ?  "  No," 
replied  the  First  Consul :  "  we  shall  want  them  to 
be  punished  for  some  other  offence,  though  they 
have  escaped  this." 

296 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

A  retired  member  of  the  bar  told  me  that  he 
was  first  associated  with  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  a  case  of 
Drew  vs.  Swift,  in  1835,  in  the  United  States  courts. 
The  case  was  a  bitterly  contested  one,  growing  out 
of  a  criminal  prosecution.  Drew  and  others  had 
been  indicted  for  forgeries,  by  which  they  were 
alleged  to  have  cheated  some  of  the  companies  in 
this  city ;  and  on  a  preliminary  hearing  before  the 
Mayor  (Swift),  a  roll  of  money  had  been  taken 
from  Drew's  person  and  identified  as  a  part  of  the 
money  obtained  through  the  alleged  forgeries. 

Upon  the  trial,  however,  Drew  was  acquitted, 
and,  under  Mr.  Ingersoll's  advice,  he  then  brought 
a  suit  against  the  Mayor  for  money  had  and  received 
to  his  use, — for  the  money  had  not  been  returned 
to  him.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  originally  alone  for  the 
plaintiff",  while  the  defendant  was  represented  by  a 
long  array  of  leading  counsel,  as  the  case  was  one 
which  the  corporations,  which  had  instigated  the 
original  prosecution,  had  to  defend.  A  first  trial 
of  about  two  weeks'  duration  had  resulted  in  a 
disagreement,  and  at  this  trial  Mr.  Ingersoll  had 
taken  no  notes  whatsoever  of  the  evidence.  Upon 
the  second  trial  (at  which  my  informant  was  pres 
ent),  as  the  witnesses  were  examined,  it  repeatedly 
happened  that  counsel  for  the  defence  insisted  that 
they  were  not  testifying  as  they  had  at  the  former 
trial.  Mr.  Ingersoll  would  then  come  to  the  aid 
of  the  witness,  saying  in  a  caustic  manner  that  the 
297 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

witness  had  testified  thus  and  so :  he  would  give 
the  exact  words  from  his  memory  and  call  upon 
the  other  side  to  look  at  their  notes  of  testimony 
and  see  whether  it  was  not  so.  In  every  instance 
they  found  his  unaided  memory  correct,  and  so 
often  did  this  happen  that  they  grew  afraid  to  enter 
into  such  controversies  with  him.  Some  one  then 
asking  him  what  he  did  to  have  the  words  so  exact, 
he  replied,  "I  do  as  the  jury  do, — trust  to  my 
memory." 

Another  informant  tells  me  a  story  from  this 
same  case,  which  shows  how  he  would  try  to  escape 
a  difficulty.  A  text-book  edited  by  Sharswood  and 
another  young  man  had  been  quoted  against  him, 
and  the  question  of  law  was  probably  pretty  clear. 
When  he  came  to  answer  on  this  point  he  said, 
"  It  seems  to  me  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side 
cite  a  book  that  is  conspicuous  for  its  paucity  of  au 
thority,"  and  he  then  opened  it  and  read  the  title- 
page,  emphasizing  the  names  of  the  editors  (then 
young  and  unknown  men),  and  flung  the  volume 
to  one  side,  saying,  in  his  most  sarcastic  tones, 
"  Pupils  become  teachers."  He  had,  indeed,  in  a 
high  degree  that  valuable  faculty  in  an  advocate 
of  preserving  always  an  absolutely  bold  front. 
No  matter  what  unexpected  developments  might 
arise  during  a  trial,  or  how  desperate  his  case 
might  look  for  the  time,  nothing  in  his  exterior 
would  show  that  he  was  in  the  least  degree  dis- 
298 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

turbed.  He  would  contest  the  unexpected  with 
the  utmost  readiness,  was  most  quick  and  inge 
nious  in  finding  a  way  to  explain  or  distinguish, 
and  when  a  point  was  overwhelmingly  against  him 
would  still  fight  without  a  sign  of  any  kind  to 
show  that  he  was  surprised  or  conscious  that  the 
battle  was  going  against  him.  The  mere  intrica 
cies  of  the  law — doubtless  meaning  principally 
practice — are  said  in  one  sketch  to  have  been  dis 
tasteful  to  him,  and  he  seems  to  have  occasionally 
been  tripped  up  for  this  reason;  but  the  same  sketch 
goes  on  that,  when  he  found  himself  caught  in  some 
such  unexpected  mesh,  it  was  astonishing  to  see 
the  power  with  which  he  would  struggle  against  it 
and  use  his  broad  grasp  of  general  principles  to 
break  down  the  petty  obstruction  in  his  way. 

All  sources  of  information  agree  that  he  was  an 
orator  of  unusual  and  even  remarkable  power. 
Some  contemporary  accounts  of  him  have  been 
preserved  in  "  Sketches  of  the  Bar,"  published  in 
newspapers  of  the  time,  and  I  have  found  a  few 
persons  who  heard  him  and  have  a  vivid  recollec 
tion  of  his  qualities  as  an  orator;  and  they  all 
agree  on  this  point.  Jonathan  Roberts  wrote  him 
that  he  thought  he  had  listened  to  him  with  more 
delight  than  to  any  other  man,  and  an  elderly 
lawyer,  who  often  heard  him  and  can  reproduce 
his  voice  and  intonation  to  some  extent,  says  that 
he  was  the  most  attractive  speaker  he  ever  listened 
299 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

to,  and  always  drew  and  held  an  audience.  A 
leading  man  at  the  bar  to-day,  who  heard  him 
argue  cases  a  few  times,  describes  his  manner  as 
being  as  sharp  and  incisive  as  a  hatchet. 

His  voice  was  not  very  strong,  and  was  rather 
high-pitched,  but  his  enunciation  was  so  distinct 
that  he  could  always  be  heard  with  ease,  even  at 
the  opening  of  a  speech ;  while  as  he  went  on  it 
grew  high,  clear,  piercing,  and  a  little  shrill.  It 
was  very  well  under  control,  and  he  was  able  to 
vary  it  and  thus  avoid  fatiguing  his  hearers,  while 
he  also  always  emphasized  strongly  the  important 
words  or  parts  of  a  sentence,  so  as  to  make  his 
meaning  perfectly  clear.  It  is  said  that  when  he 
arose  to  address  an  audience  he  was  always  en 
tirely  free  from  nervousness,  and  he  would  glance 
coolly  around  and  begin  his  remarks  precisely  as 
if  he  were  conversing  with  his  hearers.  Gestures 
he  used  but  sparingly,  except  under  the  influence 
of  excitement,  when  he  had  some  way  of  moving 
his  head,  and  particularly  of  shaking  his  hand  with 
his  long  index-finger  extended  at  his  opponent. 
One  writer  speaks  of  an  odd  shrug  of  the  shoulder 
which  he  had,  while  all  agree  that  his  tones  of 
voice,  his  gestures,  language,  and  manner  were  in 
a  remarkable  degree  his  own,  and  quite  different 
from  those  of  any  one  else. 

At  times,  when  his  subject  warranted  it,  he  is 
said  to  have  been  able  to  attain  the  highest  grade 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  eloquence,  and  to  appeal  to  his  hearers  in  a  way 
to  awaken  the  most  powerful  sympathies.  But  he 
did  not  waste  himself  in  efforts  to  attain  this  in 
any  ordinary  case.  Sarcasm,  irony,  and  invective 
were  weapons  he  constantly  used.  He  could 
maintain  a  vein  of  raillery  throughout  a  speech, 
and  would  often  overwhelm  an  opponent  with 
ridicule  and  expose  his  case  to  contempt.  But  in 
denouncing  an  opponent — and  this,  of  course, 
held  good  especially  in  the  field  of  politics — he  is 
said  to  have  been  withering : 

"Invective  follows  invective — sarcasm  crowds  after  sar 
casm — one  biting  Saxon  epithet  succeeds  to  another,  until 
the  climax  becomes  overpowering,  and  human  language 
seems  exhausted  of  its  terms  of  indignation  ;  when  perhaps 
after  a  moment  or  two  of  playful  irony,  which  deceives  us 
into  thinking  his  vocabulary  is  emptied,  he  startles  you  by 
bursting  forth  in  his  old  strain  again,  pouring  another  tor 
rent  of  burning  epithets  upon  his  foes,  scorching,  scathing, 
and  lacerating  them  without  mercy  or  intermission." 

Several  informants  speak  of  his  exquisite  choice 
of  words  as  a  strong  characteristic,  and  they 
always  followed  each  other  with  great  ease  and 
entirely  without  hesitation,  as  if  his  sentences  were 
fully  formed  in  his  mind  before  utterance.  He 
was,  however,  rather  fond  at  times  of  using  some 
unusual  word  or  possibly  coining  one  for  the  occa 
sion,  when  it  seemed  to  emphasize  the  point  he 
had  in  view, 

301 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

A  quality  which  particularly  marked  him  was 
that  which  my  informants  have  called  unexpected 
ness.  It  was  impossible  to  know  at  what  mo 
ment  he  would  break  out  into  something  in 
tensely  interesting.  Even  when  speaking  upon 
some  ordinary  subject  he  might  launch  out  sud 
denly  and  without  a  word  of  warning  into  a  vein 
of  interest;  and  this  led  those  who  knew  him 
always  to  want  to  stay  and  hear  him  out.  As  an 
instance,  a  retired  member  of  the  bar  told  me  that 
once  in  some  very  uninteresting  trial  in  the  United 
States  courts,  Mr.  Ingersoll,  apparently  suddenly 
inspired  by  a  bust  of  Judge  Washington,  had 
broken  off  into  a  most  beautiful  eulogium  upon 
that  jurist.  I  think,  however,  that  ordinarily  his 
excursions  from  the  strict  subject  were  likely  to 
have  a  dash  of  something  shocking  to  the  more 
staid  members  of  society.  His  opinions  were  by 
no  means  a  stereotyped  reproduction  of  those 
prevalent  in  his  time,  and  he  would  not  hesitate  to 
express  his  views  even  to  an  auditory  opposed  to 
him.  Possibly  his  outspokenness  in  this  way  preju 
diced  his  cases  at  times.  I  have  been  told  of  an 
instance  in  which  a  juryman  showed  plainly,  by 
some  remarks  to  a  witness,  that  his  mind  was 
made  up  against  Mr.  Ingersoll's  case;  and  the 
latter,  when  he  came  to  speak,  by  no  means  dealt 
gently  with  him  or  endeavored  by  suasion  to  lead 
him  over,  as  many  lawyers  would  have  done,  but 
102 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

attacked  him  severely  for  having  a  bias  and  making 
up  his  mind  too  early.  Political  opponents  ob 
jected  at  times  that  he  was  prolix  and  too  diffuse. 
He  was  very  fond  of  enforcing  his  meaning  by 
the  use  of  some  illustration  or  striking  expression  ; 
and  it  was  probably  this  habit,  coupled  with  the 
very  pronounced  way  in  which  he  accented  the  im 
portant  portions  of  a  sentence,  that  led  to  his  lan 
guage  burning  itself  into  the  memory,  as  my 
chief  informant  expressed  it,  when  I  wondered  at 
his  repeating  entirely  from  memory  parts  of 
speeches  delivered  fifty  or  sixty  years  before.  The 
same  informant  assured  me  that  he  rarely  heard 
him  without  carrying  away  something.  His  illustra 
tions  were  often  historical.  In  his  speech  on  the 
Loan  Bill,  in  1814,  after  referring  to  the  frequent 
disasters  of  the  Revolution  and  the  endless  bicker 
ings  against  those  then  in  authority,  he  went  on, — 

"Yes,  Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  venerable  men  of  the 
delegation  here  of  which  I  am  an  unworthy  member,  who 
recollect  these  things  ;  who  have  told  me  that  in  1776  not 
a  town,  nor  a  village,  nor  a  passenger  on  the  road  between 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  but  was  full  of  complaints 
against  Washington  himself,  clamorous  with  despondency 
of  the  cause  he  was  engaged  in.  Let  us  imitate  the  ex 
ample  of  his  constancy,  not  their  despair." 

Speaking  in  the  House  of  Representatives  once 
upon  Oregon,  when  affairs   looked  very  warlike, 
he  threw  the  members  into  great  laughter  by  tell- 
303 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ing  them  that  he  could  only  advise  them,  as 
Franklin  had  once  advised  the  colonists,  to  "  go 
home  and  get  children  as  fast  as  possible."  On 
another  occasion,  when  replying  in  an  Oregon 
debate  to  some  members  who  had  deprecated  the 
dangers  of  our  citizens  crossing  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  he  expressed  his  strong  dissent  from  this 
view,  and  said, — 

"  I  would  not  curb  or  crib  that  spirit  of  restless  enterprise, 
of  roving  ambition,  of  love  of  danger,  of  action,  and  of 
frequent  quarrel,  which  are,  perhaps,  national  character 
istics.  .  .  .  Why  not  stop  Columbus  altogether?  He 
knew  a  lady  who  said  that  she  would  never  forgive  that 
Genoese  vagabond  for  leaving  such  charming  sejours  as 
Paris,  Rome,  and  other  seats  of  European  refinement,  to 
discover  this  vulgar  land  of  mush  and  molasses,  hoecake 
and  hominy." 

Nor  did  he  hesitate,  when  the  occasion  called  for 
it,  to  rebuke  his  own  profession  for  its  narrowness, 
reminding  its  members  that  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
spoken  of  "  narrow-minded  lawyers  with  lubberly 
law-books."  Speaking  upon  the  tariff  once  in  in 
tensely  hot  weather  in  mid  July,  he  is  said  to  have 
begun  his  speech  by  saying,  in  his  high  and  inci 
sive  voice,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  sixty  shirts ;" 
then,  after  a  short  pause,  he  went  on  to  say  how 
in  this  weather  he  had  often  to  change  them,  and 
thus  illustrated  the  advantages  of  cheapness,  which 
he  attributed  to  our  tariff.  On  this  occasion  he 
304 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

further  illustrated  his  view  from  his  coat  of  French 
broadcloth  and  cravat  of  Italian  silk,  "  which  I 
wear  as  some  counteraction  of  the  overwhelming 
English  influence  of  fashionable  tailors  and  others." 
American  manufactures,  he  went  on,  were  on  their 
preferment,  and  generally  more  substantial  than 
foreign  ones. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  is  said  by  some  writers  opposed  to 
him  to  have  been  somewhat  irascible  in  his  public 
relations,  and  he  was  certainly  of  an  impatient  na 
ture  and  restive  under  restraint.  When  he  thought 
he  was  right  he  would  blurt  out  what  he  had  to 
say,  often  when  others  would  judge  his  remarks 
wanting  in  tact,  and  any  effort  to  restrain  him  or 
moderate  his  expressions  was  most  likely  to  have 
the  opposite  effect,  and  to  excite  him  by  the  contra 
diction  to  more  outspoken  language.  Once,  as  he 
rose  to  speak  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
there  was  a  great  noise  on  the  other  side  of  the 
House,  and  members  there  began  to  call  out 
"  Louder,"  "  Louder."  For  a  time  he  took  no  notice 
of  the  calls,  but  soon,  as  they  continued,  he  turned 
sharp  around  upon  the  quarter  whence  they  came, 
and  in  a  perfectly  quiet  way  but  with  the  greatest 
positiveness  and  incision  said,  "  No,  I  won't:  if 
members  upon  that  side  of  the  House  will  but 
keep  reasonably  quiet,  they  will  hear  every  word  I 
say."  The  effect  was  instantaneous,  and  the  noise 
ceased  at  once. 

20  305 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

In  another  instance  he  had  evidently  had  a  col 
lision  with  a  well-known  county  judge,  who  was 
famed  at  one  time  for  his  arrogant  and  overbearing 
manners.  This  judge  had  entered  a  judgment 
against  Mr.  Ingersoll's  client  for  want  of  a  suf 
ficient  affidavit  of  defence,  under  a  practice  which 
required  a  preliminary  affidavit  by  a  defendant  be 
fore  trial,  to  show  that  there  were  disputed  facts 
and  a  real  defence.  The  affidavit  was  of  course 
drawn  by  Mr.  Ingersoll,  and  the  judge  had  gone 
out  of  his  way  in  the  opinion  to  say  that  one  of  the 
points  made  was  not  "  well  considered."  In  the  Su 
preme  Court  upon  appeal,  Mr.  Ingersoll  read  this 
part  of  the  opinion,  and  said  in  his  sharp  voice  that 
with  all  due  respect  to  the  court  he  thought  it  was  a 
well-considered  point,  and  proceeded  to  make  some 
remarks  derogatory  to  the  judge.  Chief- Justice 
Gibson  attempted  to  check  him,  saying  that  they 
could  not  allow  a  judge  on  the  bench  to  be  so 
spoken  of,  but  the  interruption  had  the  opposite 
effect,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  launched  out  into  a  tor 
rent  of  invective.  "  When  a  judge  on  the  bench," 
he  said,  "  indulges  in  such  criticism,  he  lowers  him 
self  from  his  high  station  to  the  same  plane  as  the 
lawyer.  Your  Honors  do  not  know  this  judge;" 
and  then  he  went  on  to  apply  to  him  a  succession 
of  adjectives,  each  more  severe  than  the  other, — 
"  rash,  impetuous,  and  overbearing.  Whenever  a 
judge  puts  a  sting  into  his  decision,  he  becomes 
306 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

an  insect  I  will  tread  upon."  He  continued  in  this 
strain  for  some  time,  criticising  the  judge  most 
severely,  to  the  great  delight  of  the  members  of 
the  bar  who  were  present,  many  or  all  of  whom 
had  suffered  from  the  same  overbearing  manners. 

Several  persons  have  told  me  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's 
connection  with  the  proceedings  at  the  bar  meet 
ing  upon  John  Sergeant's  death.  His  relations 
with  Mr.  Sergeant  had  been  strained  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  it  was  probably  for  this  reason  that 
he  had  not  been  asked  to  speak.  On  this  occasion, 
after  Mr.  Binney  had  made  a  highly  appropriate 
speech  and  some  of  the  lesser  lights  of  the  bar — 
all  of  course  selected  in  advance  by  the  managers 
— had  indulged  in  the  platitudes  usual  at  these 
meetings,  when  the  chairman  asked  whether  any 
other  gentleman  desired  to  make  any  remarks,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  unexpectedly  took  the  floor.  He  was 
probably  a  little  rasped  at  not  having  been  called 
upon  to  speak  at  a  meeting  upon  the  death  of  a 
man  who  had  been,  like  himself,  largely  engaged 
in  the  field  of  public  affairs  ;  and  he  thought  that 
the  other  speakers  had  made  a  serious  blunder  in 
omitting  to  refer  to  that  portion  of  Mr.  Sergeant's 
career  and  confining  their  remarks  to  his  narrower 
sphere  of  the  bar.  I  am  told  that  his  manner  was 
intensely  pugnacious  upon  this  occasion :  he  had 
been  sitting  on  the  sill  of  a  window  several  feet 
above  the  floor,  and,  although  he  was  at  the  time 
50; 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

a  man  of  about  seventy,  he  jumped  down  with  the 
utmost  alertness  and  air  of  what  he  would  have 
called  "  oppugnation,"  and  began, — 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  not  in  the  programme,  and  I 
would  have  remained  silent,  but  that  I  am  of  opinion  that 
the  gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me,  have  omitted  to 
mention  what  I  consider  the  most  noteworthy  feature  in 
Mr.  Sergeant's  career,  viz.  : — the  Panama  Mission." 

He  then  spoke  for  some  time  of  the  valuable 
service  rendered  to  the  country  by  Mr.  Sergeant 
in  this  matter  and  in  his  public  career  generally. 
Some  of  those  who  were  present  as  law-students 
or  young  lawyers  at  this  rare  opportunity  for  them 
to  hear  the  voices  of  the  great  retired  members 
of  the  bar  have  told  me  how  struck  they  were 
with  the  contrast  between  his  view  of  Mr.  Ser 
geant  as  a  public  man  and  Mr.  Binney's  view  of 
him  as  a  lawyer;  while  another  has  emphasized 
the  striking  contrast  between  Mr.  Ingersoll's  im- 
petuousness  and  lively  manner  and  the  generally 
dull  decorum  of  the  previous  proceedings. 

In  person  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  rather  slight,  and 
was  of  medium  height,  rather  below  than  above 
the  average.  His  hair  was  always  cut  closely  to 
his  head,  and  was  described  by  the  well-known 
Mrs.  Maury  as  of  a  lively  brown  color ;  to  the  end 
of  his  life  it  had  hardly  turned  in  the  least  degree 
gray.  He  was  very  erect  and  agile  in  his  move- 
308 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

mcnts,  and  bore  all  the  air  of  a  man  accustomed 
to  command  and  to  receive  attention  and  respect. 
It  has  been  mentioned  that  in  his  early  years  he 
looked  much  younger  than  he  was,  and  this  re 
mained  the  case  to  old  age,  so  that  Judge  Shars- 
wood  wrote  that  "  in  his  eightieth  year  he  might 
well  have  passed  for  a  man  of  fifty,  erect,  agile, 
scarce  a  hair  turned  gray  or  tooth  lost."  The 
same  authority  says  that  he  possessed  "  a  most 
excellent  constitution,  which  he  had  preserved  by 
the  strictest  temperance  in  meat  and  drink  and 
by  regular  exercise ;"  but  I  do  not  think  he  be 
longed  to  that  small  number  who  have  almost  a 
redundancy  of  health.  Even  in  his  youth  he  had 
a  rather  delicate  stomach,  and  all  his  life  he  had  to 
take  care  not  to  offend  that  member.  I  find  a  few 
occasions  where  he  complains  that  he  had  been 
compelled  to  eat  a  "  greasy  dinner,"  and  was  suf 
fering  in  consequence  all  the  pangs  of  a  "  remorseful 
stomach  :"  except  on  such  occasions  of  necessity  he 
always  avoided  grease,  and  his  grandchildren  can 
remember  the  almost  horror  he  would  express  at 
the  "  g-r-r-r-ease"  which  he  saw  them  about  to  eat. 
He  was  always  scrupulously  careful  of  his  diet. 

Judge  Agnew — one  of  the  few  still  surviving 
who  sat  in  the  State  Convention  of  1837  with  Mr. 
Ingersoll — says  that  he  was  at  that  time  ordinarily 
clad  in  a  dark  frock-coat,  light  vest,  and  gray  trou 
sers;  while  Mrs.  Maury  speaks  of  him  as  "  dressed  in 
309 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

the  old  revolutionary  costume  of  buff  and  blue ;" 
and  one  of  my  informants  describes  him  at  the  John 
Sergeant  bar  meeting  as  dressed  in  a  blue  coat  with 
brass  buttons.  This  latter  is  the  costume  which 
impressed  itself  on  the  minds  of  grandchildren 
who  recall  him  as  a  very  kind  and  indulgent  host, 
for  whom,  however,  they  felt  at  the  same  time  a 
little  wholesome  awe.  A  writer  in  some  "  Sketches 
of  the  Bar,"  published  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Times 
in  1841,  speaks  as  follows  of  him  : 

"His  eccentricity,  especially  in  dress,  is  proverbial. 
Sometimes  he  is  dressed  'a  la  mode,'  sometimes  his  coat 
seems  an  heir-loom  from  his  ancestry,  and  sometimes, 
while  his  vest  is  of  exquisite  fashion,  his  hat  is  too  shabby 
to  discard.  No  matter  whether  he  is  to  appear  in  court,  at 
the  bar  of  a  senate,  or  before  a  popular  assembly,  it  is  all 
the  same.  His  political  adversaries,  taking  advantage  of 
this,  charge  that  to  sycophancy,  which  is  unquestionably 
the  result  of  eccentricity. ' ' 

It  was  indeed  charged  that  he  purposely  put  on 
shabby  clothes  and  even  sprinkled  dust  over  his 
shoulders  when  he  was  going  to  make  campaign 
speeches ;  but  the  charge  was  absolutely  absurd. 
If  the  above  is  not  enough  to  prove  this,  let  it  be 
remembered  that  he  had  many  pronounced  eccen 
tricities  all  his  life,  and  that  the  eccentricities  of 
dress  continued  when  he  was  nearing  eighty  and 
had  retired  from  public  life.  And  further,  upon  the 
same  subject,  I  will  quote  the  following  from  Mrs. 
310 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

Maury,  whose  acquaintance  with  him  was  in  the 
high  social  and  official  circles  of  Washington  : 

"  He  has  a  peculiar  taste  in  hats  ;  sometimes  he  wore  an 
old  shovel  ;  sometimes  I  have  seen  his  head  enveloped  up 
to  the  eyes  in  a  huge  fur  cap  of  villainous  form  and  figure  ; 
sometimes  the  crown  is  just  touched  by  a  straw  broad  brim 
of  gigantic  dimensions  ;  sometimes  a  dust  colored  chapeau, 
shaven  and  shapeless,  like  a  Yankee  stage  driver,  in  the 
Prairies.  In  vain  I  remonstrated  against  each  of  these 
varieties  ;  in  hats  he  was  perfectly  unmanageable  and  re 
sisted  most  triumphantly  '  the  dominion  of  the  Foreign 
Petticoat:  " 

During  the  sessions  of  Congress  Mr.  Ingersoll 
lived  in  rooms  in  Washington.  Mrs.  Ingersoll  was 
not  strong,  and  had  a  large  family  to  look  after  at 
home,  and  he  always  went  to  Washington  alone. 
He  wrote  in  1845  that  he  had  been  paying  one  hun 
dred  dollars  a  month,  but  had  recently  taken  at 
fifty  dollars  a  month  "  a  pretty  fair  parlour  and  small 
bedchamber  adjoining  at  the  Columbian  Hotel, 
a  sort  of  new  eating-house  lately  built  by  a  German 
named  Eberbach."  It  was  this  establishment  to 
which  Mrs.  Maury  referred  when  she  wrote  on  one 
occasion  to  inquire  whether  he  was  again  at  "  that 
repository  for  bad  mutton-chops."  He  escaped  in 
some  degree  the  bad  mutton-chops  by  frequently 
taking  his  dinner  at  other  places,  as  with  Mrs. 
Maury  and  others  at  Coleman's  Hotel,  and  he  also 
dined  with  friends  very  often. 
311 


CHARLES  JARED   INGERSOLL 

His  Philadelphia  residence  for  many  years  was 
the  house  now  numbered  506  Walnut  Street, 
while  his  summers  were  largely  spent  at  a  country 
seat,  which  he  called  Foresthill,  situated  at  and 
about  what  is  now  Ninth  Street  and  Erie  Avenue. 
He  seems  occasionally  to  have  taken  driving  trips 
to  York  or  Lancaster  or  Harrisburg,  and  once 
went  largely  by  carriage  as  far  as  Utica  and  Lake 
Ontario.  He  was  always  fond  of  horseback  riding, 
and  I  find  that  on  one  occasion  when  he  was  en 
gaged  in  some  trial  at  Trenton  he  stayed  at  Bor- 
dentown  with  Joseph  Bonaparte  and  rode  daily  to 
and  from  Trenton.  According  to  Mrs.  Maury,  he 
was  an  early  riser,  often  getting  up  at  four  o'clock 
and  working  until  breakfast,  and  then  taking  up 
the  regular  duties  of  the  day.  His  manner  to 
young  men,  I  have  been  told  by  those  who  had 
occasion  to  carry  some  message  to  him  at  his 
office,  was  kind  and  courteous,  though  his  habits 
of  command  and  incisiveness  were  also  apparent. 

In  his  family  he  was  extremely  kind  and  indul 
gent,  always  anxious  to  have  some  of  his  children 
visit  him  during  his  exile  at  Washington,  when  they 
would  have  a  great  frolic.  He  was  very  fond  of 
society  and  of  conversation,  and  frequently  sought 
the  society  of  bright  women  as  a  change  from  the 
great  number  of  men  he  saw  in  public  affairs. 
Thus  I  find  that  at  Washington  he  was  always  a 
constant  and  a  welcome  visitor  at  the  households 

312 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  several  of  the  leaders  of  society,  and  it  was  ap 
parently  his  habit  to  dine  with  some  one  of  them 
on  Sundays.  His  letters  show  that  the  gentle 
ness  and  absence  of  strife  he  found  in  these  homes 
afforded  a  delightful  relief  to  him  from  the  endless 
struggle  of  political  affairs.  While  at  home,  too, 
he  was  fond  of  having  some  guest — probably  a 
friend  of  his  children — added  to  the  family  circle 
to  enliven  the  household  by  an  interchange  of 
opinions.  He  corresponded  frequently  with  differ 
ent  members  of  his  family  during  the  sessions  of 
Congress,  and  was  thus  kept  conversant  with  all 
the  family  news,  while  he  gave  in  return  much 
news,  political  and  social,  from  Washington,  as 
well  as  occasionally  very  good  advice.  Thus  in 
one  instance,  when  he  seems  to  have  disapproved 
of  some  expense  incurred  by  one  of  his  family,  he 
wrote,  "  Pay  as  you  go  is  the  scripture  of  economy, 
and,  when  you  can't  pay,  don't  buy,  but  wait  till 
you  can." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  he  was  always 
welcome  at  dinners  and  in  society  generally,  for 
his  nature  was  very  bright  and  cheerful,  and  he 
had  in  a  high  degree  the  faculty  of  interesting  his 
hearers.  Some  of  his  older  grandchildren  can  re 
member  this,  and  Mrs.  Maury  wrote  that  he  was 
the  delight  of  every  dinner-party.  This  lady  was 
an  Englishwoman,  the  wife  of  the  son  of  a  former 
American  consul  in  Liverpool.  She  came  to 
313 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

America  with  one  of  her  sons  for  her  health,  and 
was  intimate  with  many  of  the  leading  public  men 
in  Washington, — with  Mr.  Ingersoll  more  than 
with  others.  She  called  him  her  guardian,  and 
the  pages  of  her  "  Statesmen  of  America  in  1846" 
show  how  much  she  admired  him  and  enjoyed  his 
buoyant  spirits  and  many  bright  sayings.  Judge 
Sharswood,  speaking  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  society, 
writes, — 

"  He  was  a  free  and  attractive  conversationalist,  and  one 
could  rarely  leave  a  company  of  which  he  had  been  a 
part,  without  carrying  with  him  something  well  thought  or 
said  by  him.  An  ex-President  of  the  United  States  [doubt 
less  Mr.  Buchanan] ,  who  had  represented  this  country  at 
two  foreign  courts,  and  who  largely  cultivated  the  society 
of  distinguished  men  at  home  and  abroad,  used  to  say 
that,  when  in  the  vein,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  the  most  agree 
able  man  he  had  ever  met  at  a  dinner-table." 

His  outspokenness  and  the  free  expression  of  his 
opinions  led  some  to  look  upon  him  as  very  radi 
cal  and  extreme,  and  his  occasional  fierce  encoun 
ters  with  political  opponents  have  made  a  few 
think  him  vindictive;  but  no  greater  mistake  could 
be  made.  His  whole  life  shows  sufficiently  that 
such  passions  were  far  from  him,  and  it  will  be 
enough  to  quote  the  following  from  Mrs.  Maury  : 

"  He  is  curious  in  seeking  the  motives  of  men,  and  has 
frequently  given  me  the  key  of  the  characters  of  those 
around  us  with  much  acuteness  and  felicity  ;  and  I  have 
3«4 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

ever  found  him  inclined  to  praise  rather  than  to  censure. 
He  has  no  secrets,  and  can  keep  none  ;  the  only  error  of 
his  nature  being  an  uncontrollable  impulse  to  utter  at 
once,  regardless  of  time  and  place,  the  thing  he  feels,  or 
knows,  or  even  suspects.  If  this  excess  of  candour  some 
times  leads  him  beyond  the  bounds  of  caution,  it  displays 
also  the  most  noble  and  most  generous  sentiments  that 
can  animate  the  breast  of  man  ;  open  to  conviction,  ready 
to  acknowledge  an  indiscretion,  and  earnest  to  ask  as  he 
is  happy  to  grant  forgiveness,  his  character  exhibits  all  the 
warm  uncalculating  sensibilities  of  youth.  .  .  .  Headlong 
and  rash,  et  brave  comme  son  epee,  three  score  years  and 
three  have  failed  to  cool  that  hot  impetuous  blood,  which 
dances  rather  than  flows  in  his  veins  ;  but  again,  a  silken 
cord  can  lead  him  ;  can  check  his  haste  and  curb  his 
anger  ;  and  induce  him  to  feel  and  practise  the  magna 
nimity  of  forbearance.  To  me  he  accorded  his  constant, 
unreserved,  and  most  intimate  confidence  ;  and  I  declare, 
and  solemnly  as  I  hope  for  mercy,  that  the  breast  of  Inger- 
soll  is  guiltless  of  all  wilful  malice,  and  free  from  all  vin 
dictive  passions  ;  but  happier  would  he  be  had  he  more 
cunning  to  be  more  discreet.  This  much  I  trust  he  will 
permit  from  me,  in  all  the  sincerity  of  affection  and  re 
spect.  So  gentle,  so  easily  affected  is  he,  that  I  have 
sometimes  invented  a  pathetic  story  that  I  might  see  my 
Guardian  weep  ;  and  on  a  public  occasion,  one  of  the 
most  interesting  of  my  life  [a  dinner  given  her  by  the 
ladies  at  Washington] ,  the  emotion  which  he  who  sat  at 
my  side  displayed,  was  among  the  most  touching  events 
of  that  proud  and  happy  day." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  appears  to  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  often  going  to  church,  but  made  a  point  of  going 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

where  he  would  hear  an  able  sermon,  and  did  not 
confine  himself  to  attendance  upon  any  special  de 
nomination.  His  father  had  been  a  Presbyterian, 
and  I  think  he  was  one  for  many  years  of  his  life. 
Mrs.  Maury  says  that  he  was  a  Presbyterian  at  the 
time  of  her  acquaintance,  but  he  later  joined  the 
Episcopal  Church.  Judge  Sharswood  says,  "  He 
was  a  sincere  and  firm  believer  in  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  without  the  slightest  taint  of  bigotry 
or  fanaticism,  and  attached  to  the  forms  and  wor 
ship  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  the 
communion  of  which  he  died." 

He  was  very  liberal,  knew  and  admired  a  good 
many  Roman  Catholic  prelates,  and  seems  to 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  dining  occasionally  with 
the  Jesuits  at  Georgetown  College.  In  the  House 
once  he  attacked  Mr.  Levin,  the  Native-American 
member  from  Philadelphia,  for  making  an  appeal 
to  religious  prejudices,  and  offered  to  take  him 
to  Georgetown  and  introduce  him  to  the  Jesuits 
there, — "  men,"  he  said,  "  who  have  maintained  the 
standing  of  that  institution  for  these  fifty  or  sixty 
years  past,  while,  during  that  same  period,  bishop 
after  bishop  of  the  Protestant  churches  has  been 
convicted  of  inebriety  and  promiscous  amours,  and 
been  degraded  for  the  grossest  vices.  For  fifty 
years,  those  Jesuit  fathers  have  been  disseminating 
the  doctrines  of  human  freedom,  as  well  as  the 
treasures  of  science,  to  the  youth  of  America,  and 
316 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

not  an  instance  has  occurred  of  anything  to  their 
dishonor." 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was  an  ardent  believer  in  his  coun 
try,  whose  stupendous  strides  he  had  witnessed  in 
his  own  lifetime.  He  thought  that  her  future  was  to 
be  great  and  her  influence  on  the  world  enormous  ; 
and  this  influence  was  not,  I  judge,  in  his  estima 
tion  destined  to  be  confined  to  indirect  results  from 
the  spread  of  our  principles  of  government,  but 
was  to  be  to  some  extent  direct.  I  think  he  be 
lieved  in  our  exercising  a  wider  sphere  as  one  of 
the  powerful  nations  of  the  world  than  we  have 
done,  and  at  several  times  in  his  life,  when  he 
thought  foreign  nations  showed  an  inclination  to 
interfere  with  us,  he  was  up  in  arms  at  once.  I 
know  of  no  instance  where  he  desired  to  inter 
mingle  in  European  affairs  or  to  enter  into  any 
entangling  alliances,  and  I  find  him  writing  Mr. 
Gilpin  in  November,  1838,  to  express  the  hope  that 
in  the  forthcoming  message  of  the  President 
"  American  position  will  be  taken  against  England 
as  to  Canada, — not  brigand  patriotism,  but  true 
American."  He  undoubtedly  believed  that  this 
continent  should  be  ours, — not  that  it  should  be 
united  under  one  head,  but  that  we  should  be  the 
one  great  power  and  should  not  allow  any  other 
to  gain  the  least  foothold.  For  this  purpose  he 
would  have  faced  war  at  any  day. 

I  do  not  think  that  he  can  be  classed  as  a  strict 
317 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

obstructionist :  on  the  contrary,  he  would  most 
likely  have  convinced  himself  that  the  constitution 
conferred  the  power  he  wanted.  In  a  contempo 
rary  sketch  of  him,  which  probably  passed  through 
his  hands  before  publication,  I  find  quoted  with 
apparent  approval  a  saying  attributed  to  Monroe 
during  the  Second  War,  "  After  the  war  we'll  think 
of  constitutional  points." 

Of  the  fitness  of  the  people,  the  uneducated  and 
very  poor  as  well  as  the  well-to-do  and  the  learned, 
to  participate  in  government  he  was  absolutely 
convinced ;  and  he  of  course  extended  this  to 
those  who  could  not  read  or  write.  It  was  his 
opinion  that  the  decision  of  a  large  number  of 
human  beings  is  much  more  likely  to  be  right 
than  that  of  a  few,  and  he  doubtless  believed  that 
universal  suffrage  is  useful  in  giving  a  broad 
foundation  to  the  expression  of  the  popular  will 
and  tending  to  cancel  and  annul  any  ill  effects  from 
the  selfishness  of  classes.  He  held,  I  think,  that 
no  human  being  can  foresee  more  than  a  very  short 
distance,  and  that  the  difference  in  this  respect 
between  the  learned  and  the  unlearned  comes  to 
extremely  little  in  the  smallness  of  any  human 
knowledge.  He  often  remarked  on  this  point  how 
quickly  in  times  of  popular  upheaval,  when  the 
vested  advantages  of  the  upper  classes  are  reduced 
to  a  minimum,  the  lowly  born  rapidly  take  the 
lead  and  crowd  aside  the  weaklings  of  luxury. 
318 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  Yes,  sir,"  he  said  ^  once  in  the  House,  "  when 
the  combined  arms  of  Europe  invaded  unarmed 
France,  the  militia,  the  common  people,  who 
elected,  at  the  drum-head,  cobblers  and  tinkers 
and  ostlers  to  command  them,  went  forth  to  battle 
against  the  princes  and  nobles  who  led  well-trained 
armies  to  expected  conquest,  and  drove  them  back 
into  nearly  every  capital  of  Europe,  which  they 
captured." 

Though  he  would  at  times  approve  of  the  most 
active  steps  for  the  repression  of  tumult, — as  ap 
parently  in  the  case  of  the  Philadelphia  riots  of 
1844  and  notably  in  Jackson's  conduct  of  affairs  in 
New  Orleans  and  in  Florida, — yet  he  had  none  of 
that  deep  dread  of  the  "  mob"  which  many  have. 
I  have  been  told  that  once,  in  a  speech,  he  described 
the  United  States  as  "  a  nation  born  of  a  Boston 
mob,"  and  on  another  occasion  in  an  argument  of 
a  law  case  he  said  that  he  would  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  mob  to  accomplish  the  purpose  intended 
by  the  act  of  Assembly  under  consideration. 

Another  informant  told  me  that  he  was  present 
at  an  excited  discussion  between  Mr.  Ingersoll  and 
Mr.  Dallas  and  Mr.  Richard  Rush.  Mr.  Inger 
soll  had  expressed  his  admiration  for  the  French, 
while  the  others  disparaged  them  and  preferred  the 
English:  when  they  complained  that  the  French 
always  act  hastily  and  on  impulse,  Mr.  Ingersoll 
replied  that  "  an  ounce  of  impulse  is  worth  a  ton 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  second  thoughts."  As  the  warmth  of  the  dis 
cussion  increased,  they  drifted  on  to  the  French 
Revolution,  for  which  Mr.  Ingersoll  expressed  his 
admiration,  saying  that  revolutions  are  good  things 
occasionally :  "  they  are  like  thunder-gusts,  to 
clear  the  atmosphere."  This  was  awful  to  the 
others,  who  spoke  of  the  "  mob,"  and  asked  what 
he  would  do  to  stop  it.  "  Nothing,"  he  replied, 
"  nothing.  I  would  put  myself  at  the  head  of  it 
and  lead  it." 

The  admiration  for  the  French  which  he  ex 
pressed  in  this  discussion  was  a  feeling  which  he 
had  throughout  his  whole  life.  Originating  ap 
parently  during  his  visit  to  Paris  as  a  young  man, 
and  afterwards  a  very  natural  growth  from  the  lines 
of  political  division  existing  during  the  long  strug 
gle  between  France  and  England  for  supremacy, 
the  feeling  never  waned,  and  he  always  took  the 
deepest  interest  in  matters  of  French  history  and 
particularly  of  the  time  of  Bonaparte.  In  his  "  His 
tory  of  the  Second  War"  quite  a  large  space  is 
devoted  to  French  history  of  that  time,  and  in  1830, 
in  an  article  in  the  American  Quarterly  Review 
upon  Bourrienne  and  Napoleon,  he  showed  how 
these  subjects  had  always  interested  him.  This 
article  appeared  just  about  the  time  of  the  Revolu 
tion  of  1830,  and,  as  written  by  its  author,  had 
foretold  the  downfall  of  Charles  X.,  but  unfor 
tunately  Mr.  Walsh,  more  or  less  with  Mr.  Inger- 
320 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

soil's  authorization  to  curtail,  cut  out  exactly  this 
prophetic  part.  This  was  of  course  a  lamentable 
misadventure  to  a  man  in  public  affairs,  and  be 
came  the  subject  of  a  warm  attack  upon  Mr. 
Walsh  in  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer,  with  which 
Mr.  Ingersoll  had  nothing  to  do. 

When  Joseph  Bonaparte  came  to  live  near  Phila 
delphia,  Mr.  Ingersoll  early  made  his  acquaintance, 
and  the  acquaintance  soon  developed  into  a  friend 
ship  from  which  both  evidently  derived  much 
pleasure.  They  often  saw  each  other  on  the  most 
confidential  terms,  and  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  a  fre 
quent  guest  at  Point  Breeze,  where  he  met  also  Mar 
shal  Grouchy,  Generals  Clausel,  Bernard,  Charles 
and  Henry  Lallemand,  Lefebvre  Desnouettes,  and 
Vandamme,  and  other  exiled  French  army  officers, 
besides  Regnault  de  St.-Jean  d'Angely,  Count  Real 
the  prefect  of  police,  and  sons  of  Fouche  and  of 
Marshals  Lannes  and  Ney.  With  the  ex-king  of 
Spain  and  with  these  persons,  all  of  whom  had 
been  actors  and  some  of  whom  had  taken  vastly 
important  parts  in  the  stupendous  drama  of  then 
recent  history,  Mr.  Ingersoll  had  many  conversa 
tions  upon  the  great  events  and  the  great  per 
sonages  of  the  time,  and  derived  from  them  an 
insight  into  history  which  can  be  gained  only  in 
some  such  way.  It  was,  as  he  wrote,  "  reading 
history,  biography,  politics,  and  philosophy  in  their 
most  attractive  pages,"  and  it  was  the  history  of  a 

21  321 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

time  in  which  he  took  the  most  intense  interest. 
He  formed  a  plan,  with  Joseph's  knowledge  and 
hearty  approval,  of  writing  a  history  of  the  rise 
and  fall  of  Bonaparte,  but  it  was  only  partly  exe 
cuted  in  some  of  the  chapters  of  the  "  Second  War." 
Joseph  Bonaparte  always  watched  events  in 
France  with  much  care,  feeling  himself  in  a  sense 
the  head  of  the  Bonaparte  family  and  bound  to 
look  after  the  interests  of  the  young  Duke  of 
Reichstadt,  the  son  and  legitimate  successor  of  the 
great  Emperor.  A  diary  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  shows 
that  Joseph  had  agents  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and  other 
capitals,  who  kept  him  regularly  informed  of  public 
sentiment  in  Europe.  And  when  the  Revolution 
of  July,  1830,  came,  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  in  frequent 
confidential  communication  with  him,  advising  as 
to  the  best  course  to  pursue,  as  well  as  writing  some 
letters  to  the  public  papers  (especially  the  Sentinel) 
at  his  instigation,  and  translating  several  of  the  ex- 
king  of  Spain's  letters  for  publication  in  this  country. 
He  had  at  one  time  offered  to  go  to  Europe  on  his 
behalf,  and  in  September  of  1830  Joseph  asked  him 
to  allow  one  of  his  sons  to  go  to  Vienna  to  com 
municate  with  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt  or  his  mother, 
but  the  plan  was  abandoned  upon  the  proclamation 
of  Louis  Philippe  as  king.  Mr.  Ingersoll  was  also 
consulted  as  to  Joseph's  letter  on  behalf  of  the 
Duke  of  Reichstadt  and  the  Napoleon  family  to 
the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies  and  his  other 
322 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

letters  to  leading  governmental  people  at  that 
time;  but  the  arrival  some  months  later  of  the 
stale  news  that  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  dis 
solved,  and  other  difficulties  experienced  by  the 
ex-king  in  dealing  with  his  plans  at  such  a  dis 
tance,  led  to  the  decision  that  he  must  himself 
return  to  Europe  and  be  nearer  the  scene  of  action. 
With  his  departure  there  came  to  an  end  what  had 
been  a  very  delightful  acquaintance  7°  to  Mr.  Inger- 
soll.  In  much  later  years  he  was  sent  for  by  some 
of  the  Bonaparte  family  who  visited  this  country. 
Joseph  Bonaparte  left  him  by  will  a  beautiful  statu 
ette  of  General  Bonaparte  of  the  time  of  the  Italian 
campaigns,  which  is  preserved  by  a  grandson. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  views  upon  many  special  ques 
tions  and  upon  many  of  his  contemporaries  have 
appeared  in  the  course  of  this  book,  but  something 
more  needs  to  be  said  upon  a  few  subjects.  Of 
Mr.  McDuffie  he  wrote  in  1844,  describing  him  as 
"  a  strange  isolated  sort  of  man,  great  talents,  but 
a  mere  politician,  yet  no  party  man,  with  a  bullet 
sticking  to  his  spine,  which  no  surgery  can  remove 
and  which  makes  him  very  rickety  and  poorly." 
At  one  time  of  his  life,  in  1823,  he  already  fore 
saw  7I  that  Latin  and  Greek  were  losing  their  pre 
eminence  as  means  of  education;  but  I  judge 
that  he  modified  this  opinion  later,  for  I  find  him 
writing  to  Mrs.  Maury  and  expressing  his  agree 
ment  with  her  "  upon  the  superior  use  and  value 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

of  the  classics  in  the  formation  of  mind  and  char 
acter."  He  had  also  as  a  young  man  been  strongly 
in  favor  of  removing  the  capital  from  Washington 
to  Philadelphia  or  some  other  important  city,  and 
thought  the  plan  easy  of  attainment,  but  came  later 
to  change  this  opinion  altogether. 

He  seems  to  have  been  active  in  obtaining  cer 
tain  legislation,  which  has  been  much  criticised, 
but  has  held  its  place  and  even  been  widely  ex 
tended.  When  in  the  Legislature  in  1830  he 
introduced 72  a  bill  "  for  the  security  of  mechanics, 
journeymen,  laborers,  and  others,"  which  was  later 
passed,  and  was  the  first  general  law  in  the  State 
upon  its  subject.  He  also  introduced  a  resolution 
looking  to  the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt 
in  cases  under  one  hundred  dollars. 

From  early  youth  all  through  his  life  he  was  an 
earnest  advocate  of  a  liberal  law  of  nations,  and 
particularly  of  the  doctrine  of  free  ships,  free 
goods.  The  travesty  upon  international  law 
which  was  carried  on  with  a  high  hand  by  the 
great  powers  during  the  Napoleonic  wars  found 
in  him  an  uncompromising  opponent.  He  took 
his  stand  upon  the  general  subject  in  1808  in 
"  Rights  and  Wrongs,"  denouncing  paper  block 
ades  and  impressment,  and  asserting  his  conviction 
that  the  world  would  come  in  time  to  maintain  the 
immunity  of  all  private  property  in  war  on  the 
ocean,  as  it  already  had  done  on  the  land. 
324 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

"  If,"  said  he,  "  a  concert  with  Russia,  France, 
Holland,  and  Spain,  all  of  whom  with  Denmark 
must  desire  it,  could  be  effectuated  for  freeing  the 
ocean  of  privateers  and  search  ships,  and  direct 
ing  by  common  agreement  the  operations  of  war 
against  ships  of  war,  leaving  the  merchantman  to 
the  peaceable  pursuit  of  his  traffic,  and  if  such  a 
system  could  be  secured  without  our  being  drawn 
into  hostilities,  it  certainly  were  a  consummation 
devoutly  to  be  wished." 

On  the  floor  of  the  House  during  the  War  of 
1812,  as  has  been  seen,  he  urged  this  same  policy, 
but  his  very  moderate  claims  met  with  unqualified 
denunciation  and  ridicule  from  the  Federalists  and 
found  scant  approval  from  his  own  party,  though 
we  were  then  actually  engaged  in  a  war  for  their 
maintenance.  In  July,  1814,  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Madison  expressing  wonder  at  this  opposition,  and 
stating  that  his  position  had  been  that  it  was  "  the 
right  and  interest  of  this  country  to  assert  and 
maintain  the  principle  that  free  ships  make  free 
goods,  not  as  a  point  to  wage  war  for  per  sc,  but  as 
one  which  it  behooved  us  never  to  lose  sight  of. 
I  remember  with  pleasure,"  he  went  on,  "  that  I 
once  heard  you  assert  this  principle,  but  in  Con 
gress  and  in  the  Supreme  Court  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  it  was  almost  friendless.  Such  is  the  influ 
ence  of  -England !  We  read  none  but  English 
books,  adopt  none  but  English  ideas  of  law  and 
325 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

politics."  Mr.  Madison  replied  that  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  had  rather  taken  the  other  view  in  his  cor 
respondence  with  Genet,  but  that  he  himself 
thought  the  principle  good  and  desirable,  and 
that  unarmed  vessels,  like  ploughs,  ought  not  to 
be  molested. 

In  1824,  upon  disputes  on  kindred  subjects 
arising  during  the  revolts  of  the  Spanish  colonies, 
Mr.  Ingersoll  wrote 73  to  Mr.  Adams,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  proposing  that  "  we  should  proclaim  and 
enforce  a  new  and  liberal  American  law  of  nations, 
and  particularly  that  free  ships  should  make  free 
goods."  Mr.  Adams,  whose  opinions  evidently 
inclined  the  same  way,  read  this  letter  at  a  meet 
ing  of  the  Cabinet,  but  it  was  determined  not  to 
resort  to  force  at  that  time,  and  the  point  in  dis 
pute  was  apparently  settled  in  some  more  quiet 
way.  Finally,  in  his  "  Law  of  Foreign  Missions," 
in  1845,  Mr.  Ingersoll  again  advocated  the  same 
views,  and  wrote  that  it  had  long  been  among 
his  fondest  fancies  that  it  was  a  part  of  American 
destiny  thus  to  ameliorate  the  law  of  nations. 

If  the  views  he  held  upon  this  subject  have  not 
yet  been  all  adopted  by  the  world,  at  least  a  very 
large  part  of  them  has,  and  the  tendency  of  the 
leading  nations  has  been  decidedly  towards  all 
those  principles  upon  the  subject,  which  he  began 
to  advocate  at  a  time  when  the  majority  of  the 
leading  men  even  of  his  own  country  were  against 
326 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

him,  and  when  many  thought  his  ideas  merely 
chimerical. 

During  the  thirteen  years  which  elapsed  be 
tween  Mr.  Ingersoll's  retirement  from  Congress 
and  his  death  he  rarely  took  any  active  part  in  the 
public  affairs  of  the  day.  He  was  once  at  a  bar 
meeting,  and  possibly  in  court  on  a  few  other  oc 
casions,  and  he  continued  to  watch  the  course  of 
events  with  deep  interest,  but  his  main  occupation 
was  literary  work.  He  had  many  years  before,  as 
early  as  1817,  formed  the  plan  of  writing  a  history 
of  the  War  of  1812,  and  he  seems  to  have  begun 
then  to  collect  materials  for  this  purpose,  but  the 
pressure  of  his  work  at  the  bar  and  other  causes 
delayed  the  book,  and  the  first  volume  appeared 
only  in  1845,  the  second  in  1849,  anc^  tne  tvvo  ^ast 
in  1852.  I  think  he  worked  at  it  often  in  leisure 
hours  during  the  sessions  of  Congress,  and  he 
devoted  to  it  a  vast  deal  of  time  and  energy. 

He  called  the  book  an  "  Historical  Sketch  of  the 
Second  War  between  the  United  States  of  America 
and  Great  Britain,  declared  by  Act  of  Congress 
the  1 8th  of  June,  1812,  and  concluded  by  peace  the 
1 6th  February,  1815."  It  is  by  no  means  a  mere 
description  of  battles  and  campaigns,  but  aims  to 
trace  causes  and  show  the  history  of  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  time,  and  of  course  contains  a  great 
deal  about  the  European  history  of  the  day.  Later 
he  wrote  a  volume  of  "  Recollections,"  which  was 
327 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

printed  during  his  lifetime,  but  not  issued  until 
a  good  many  years  later.  He  had  also  begun  his 
tories  of  our  acquisitions  of  Louisiana  and  Texas, 
and  of  the  disputes  over  Oregon  and  the  Maine 
boundary,  but  these  were  all  left  by  him  unfinished. 
I  have  used  them  to  some  extent  in  this  book. 

In  1843  he  had  read  before  the  Law  Academy 
of  Philadelphia  an  address  on  the  "  Law  of  Foreign 
Missions,"  which  was  printed  in  the  Public  Ledger 
of  October  25,  1843,  a°d  also  in  the  American 
Law  Magazine  for  January,  1845.  It  was  the 
result  of  a  close  study  of  a  great  many  authors, 
and  involved  a  vast  deal  of  labor.  At  some  much 
earlier  period — at  least  as  early  as  1829,  but  1 
have  not  been  able  to  fix  its  date  more  closely — 
he  had  written  "  Julian,  a  Tragedy."  This  was,  I 
think,  never  produced  on  the  stage.  It  is  in  blank 
verse,  and  is  founded  on  the  story  of  the  death  of 
Julian  the  Apostate.  The  preface  describes  it  as 
the  work  of  "  a  very  young  essayist,  who,  discard 
ing  lovers  and  villains,  attempted  to  develop  ambi 
tion,  patriotism,  pride,  remorse,  and  selfishness  as 
the  ruling  passions,  from  whose  indulgence  to 
excess  a  moral  always  results  in  retributive  jus 
tice."  His  other  works  have  sufficiently  appeared 
in  the  course  of  this  sketch. 

The  style  of  Mr.  Ingersoll's  writings  in  his  early 
days  was  perfectly  clear,  but  that  of  his  later 
works  has  been  much  criticised  as  being  involved 
328 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

and  difficult  to  follow.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
consider  this  question,  and  the  works  must  speak 
for  themselves.  Style  is  very  largely  a  matter  of 
taste,  and  the  involved  style  of  Carlyle  has  been 
greatly  admired  by  hosts  of  readers.  Mr.  In- 
gersoll  was  an  admirer  of  Carlyle,  and  some  have 
thought  that  this  admiration  led  to  his  endeavor 
ing  to  follow  that  writer's  style.  One  who  often 
saw  him  very  intimately  in  his  latter  years  has 
said  in  my  hearing  that  he  was  usually  to  be 
found  at  his  table,  fairly  walled  in  with  a  mass  of 
books,  and  with  his  quill  rushing  over  the  paper 
at  a  high  rate  of  speed.  The  manuscript  works 
which  have  been  in  my  hands  show  also  that  he 
changed  his  text  in  a  large  degree  and  frequently 
transferred  portions  of  it.  Adjectives  and  adjec 
tive  clauses,  and  phrases  to  illustrate  or  to  limit, 
have  been  in  many  instances  interlined  or  inter- 
paged  ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been  often  done 
in  review,  as  sometimes  much  the  same  idea  is 
contained  in  a  succeeding  sentence  of  the  original 
text.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  style, 
the  works  are  all  full  of  matter.  Of  many  of  the 
subjects  treated  the  author  had  a  most  intimate 
knowledge  from  having  taken  part  in  them ;  and 
of  all  of  them  he  had  been  a  student  and  a  close 
observer  all  his  life,  intimate  with  many  and  ac 
quainted  with  all  the  figures  on  the  stage  of  public 
life. 

329 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

Mr.  Ingersoll  was,  as  has  been  seen,  for  many 
years  deeply  impressed  with  the  perils  to  the 
country  incident  to  the  slavery  disputes,  and  as  a 
part  of  his  history  of  Texas  he  had  to  some  extent 
examined  the  history  of  slavery  in  this  country. 
About  the  time  of  the  Presidential  election  of  1856, 
no  doubt  instigated  by  the  heated  contests  upon 
the  subject  then  raging  and  causing  so  much  hos 
tility  between  the  sections,  he  enlarged  and  com 
pleted  this  sketch  and  published  it  after  the  elec 
tion  as  a  pamphlet,  under  the  title  "  African  Slavery 
in  America."  He  of  course  adhered  to  the  views 
he  had  always  maintained,  and  aimed  to  avoid  the 
fomentation  of  excitement.  Its  publication  was 
probably  intentionally  delayed  until  after  the  elec 
tion,  and  it  began  by  saying  that  Pennsylvania  was 
the  meridian,  and  "  an  aged  descendant  from  New 
England,  withdrawn  from  party  politics,"  was  not 
an  improper  person  to  submit  to  the  whole  country 
a  temperate  view  of  the  matter. 

That  slavery  was  an  evil  was  to  him  clear,  nor 
did  he  hesitate,  either  in  this  pamphlet  or  while 
he  was  in  public  life,  to  announce  this  view  and  to 
refer  to  the  strange  result  of  the  abolition  excite 
ment  upon  the  South  in  driving  it  to  defend  slavery 
as  a  beneficial  institution.  But  his  view  was  that  it 
was  an  established  and  existing  fact,  which  could 
not  be  suddenly  uprooted  except  by  evils  far  worse 
than  slavery  itself.  The  abolition  movement  was 
330 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

in  his  opinion  harmful,  and* served  only  to  prevent 
or  delay  the  attainment  of  freedom  for  the  negroes. 
He  always  pointed  to  the  early  act  for  gradual 
abolition  in  Pennsylvania  as  a  model,  which  de 
served  to  be  followed,  and  which  might  already 
have  been  followed  in  the  South  but  for  the  agita 
tion  against  slavery  and  the  South's  consequent 
rebound  from  some  tendency  towards  abolition  to 
an  angry  denunciation  of  all  criticism  or  even 
reference  to  slavery. 

Neither  he  nor  any  other  human  being  foresaw 
the  tremendous  events  of  the  next  decade,  but  he 
does  seem  to  have  pretty  well  realized  the  impos 
sibility  of  disunion  without  war,  and  in  another 
writing  of  about  the  same  date,  he  wrote,  "  In  the 
Southern  States,  continual  provocation  from  the 
East  begot  an  unwise  belief  that  dismemberment 
of  the  Union  may  be  peaceably  effected  and  would 
be  better  than  the  present  confederacy  with  fellow- 
citizens  unceasingly  striking  at  their  possessions 
and  vilifying  their  characters." 

The  agitation  continued  and  grew  even  far  more 
violent  during  the  four  years  of  Mr.  Buchanan's 
term,  but  until  the  outbreak  of  the  secession  move 
ment  Mr.  Ingersoll  must  have  remained  a  sup 
porter  in  the  main  of  his  administration.  I  believe 
that  during  the  campaign  of  1860  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  one  of  the  public  papers,  urging  the  support  of 
Mr.  Breckenridge,  but  this  is  the  last  public  act  of 


CHARLES   JARED   INGERSOLL 

his  I  have  heard  of.  When  the  crash  of  secession 
finally  came,  he  was  a  very  old  man,  and  but  little 
has  reached  me  to  show  his  opinions.  One  in 
formant  has  told  me  that  he  expressed  approval 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  call  for  volunteers,  and  said  some 
thing  to  the  effect  that  it  was  the  best  thing  done 
yet.  And  another  person  tells  me  that  as  he 
lamented  to  Mr.  Ingersoll  in  the  street  one  day 
upon  the  dangers  hanging  over  the  country,  Mr. 
Ingersoll  replied  in  the  deepest  grief,  and  added 
that  he  was  a  very  old  man  and  off  the  stage  of 
life,  could  hardly  expect  even  to  live  to  see  the 
end  of  the  contest,  but  that  the  South  had  thrown 
down  the  gauntlet,  and  the  North  could  not  do 
otherwise  than  take  it  up  and  fight  for  the  terri 
torial  integrity  of  the  country.  But  there  was 
coupled  with  his  support  of  the  war  the  strongest 
disapproval  of  the  violent  and  ultra  measures  of 
the  administration. 

These  expressions  of  opinion  are  all  that  I  have 
been  able  to  secure,  but  they  are  directly  in  the 
line  which  my  study  of  his  views  would  lead  me 
to  expect.  Deeply  impressed  as  he  was  with  the 
incalculable  value  of  the  Union,  he  would,  I  think, 
have  strongly  supported  a  war  to  maintain  it ;  and 
no  argument  of  want  of  constitutional  power  would 
have  carried  any  weight  with  him  upon  an  issue 
involving  its  preservation.  With  the  period  of  his 
own  life  covering  the  whole  life  of  the  constitution 
332 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

of  his  country,  brought  up  by  his  father  to  admire 
and  revere  the  instrument  the  father  had  aided  in 
framing,  and  himself  ever  an  ardent  supporter  of 
all  the  measures  which  made  its  glory  and  were 
possible  only  in  union,  he  must  have  stood  aghast 
to  see  in  his  old  age  the  whole  fabric  shaking  in 
the  utter  uncertainty  of  a  desperate  civil  war.  All 
that  he  had  believed  in  and  contested  for  was  in 
danger;  the  Union  was  broken,  the  constitution 
was  in  effect  suspended  or  ignored  except  as  a 
mere  frame  of  government,  and  the  two  sections 
of  the  country,  which  he  had  striven  for  years  to 
induce  to  live  in  peace,  were  soon  struggling  to 
ruin  each  other  in  the  throes  of  a  furious  civil  war. 
Instead  of  commerce  and  fraternity,  war  and  deso 
lation  held  the  land  in  their  grasp,  and  vast  armed 
hosts  of  his  countrymen  were  hurling  themselves 
upon  one  another. 

In  the  fury  of  the  passions  of  that  day,  when 
young  men  felt  that  their  whole  future  was  at 
stake,  and  when  all  the  energies  of  the  country 
were  bent  to  the  settlement  of  one  great  question, 
there  was  no  time  for  sentimental  sorrow  or  to 
think  of  the  position  of  old  men  out  of  active  life; 
but  the  deep  pathos  of  the  position  of  Mr.  Inger- 
soll  and  others  of  his  political  beliefs  and  time  of 
life  can  hardly  be  overstated.  They  had  outlived 
their  time,  and  were  left  powerless  and  hopeless, 
while  their  country  was  struggling  in  the  agony  of 
333 


CHARLES   JARED    INGERSOLL 

a  mighty  change,  of  the  outcome  of  which  no  one 
could  foresee  anything  unless  that  it  must  cut  en 
tirely  adrift  from  all  the  main  beliefs  and  principles 
which  had  seemed  essential  to  them.  Those  of 
them  were  fortunate  who  died  before  the  long- 
threatened  secession  became  a  fact,  and  to  those 
who  as  old  men  survived  to  that  period  their 
years  must  indeed  have  been  a  burden  and  a 
sorrow.  They  were  reserved  to  endure  the  pain 
ful  experience  which  one  of  the  very  greatest  of 
the  orators  and  intellects  of  America  had  earnestly 
hoped  might  not  be  his.  They  were  hanging  over 
the  precipice  of  disunion,  and  with  their  short 
human  sight  they  could  not  fathom  the  depth  of 
the  abyss  below.  When  their  eyes  were  turned 
for  the  last  time  to  behold  the  sun  in  heaven,  they 
did  see  him  shining  on  the  broken,  if  not  dishon 
ored,  fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union ;  on 
States  dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a 
land  rent  with  civil  feuds  and  drenched  in  fraternal 
blood. 

Mr.  Ingersoll  died  on  the  I4th  of  May,  1862,  of 
an  inflammation  of  the  lungs.  He  was  within  five 
months  of  eighty  years  of  age.  His  wife  died  on 
the  28th  of  August  of  the  same  year.  They  had 
had  eight  children,  six  sons  and  two  daughters,  all 
of  whom  survived  them  except  two  sons  and  one 
daughter. 


334 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES. 


1.  Page.  14.     The   Ingersoll   genealogy  is  taken   from 
facts  kindly  furnished  me  by  G.  Albert  Lewis,  Esq.,  and 
from  The  Ingersolls  of  Hampshire,  by  Charles  S.  Ripley. 

2.  Page  1 8.     For  facts  in  regard  to  Jared  Ingersoll  the 
elder,  see  Binney's  Jared  Ingersoll,  in  Leaders  of  the  Old 
Bar,  Simpson's  Eminent  Philadelphians,  under  Jared  Inger 
soll,  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  Mahon's  His 
tory  of  England,  vol.  v.  pp.  86,  87,  and  Scharf  and  West- 
cott's  History  of  Philadelphia.     His  letters  from  England 
are  printed  in  Life  and  Times  of  William  Samuel  Johnson, 
by  E.  E.  Beardsley. 

3.  Page  25.     For  Jared  Ingersoll  the  younger,  see  Bin 
ney's  Jared  Ingersoll,  Simpson's  Eminent  Philadelphians, 
Reed's  Joseph  Reed,  Martin's  Bench  and  Bar. 

4.  Page  36.     The  account  of  Mr.  Ingersoll' s  boyhood 
and  youth  is  taken  from  various  writings  of  his,  some  in 
manuscript  and  partly  from  letters.     The  opinion  upon 
Colonel  Despard's  case  is  from  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography. 

5.  Page  38.     Number  of  October  7,  1805. 

6.  Page  40.      This  appointment   is    not   mentioned  in 
Martin's  Bench  and  Bar,  but  is  to  be  found  noticed  in  the 
Aurora  of  November  16,  1805,  and  PoulsoiCs  Daily  Ad 
vertiser  of    November  7,    1805  ;    and   an   advertisement 
signed  by  him  as  clerk  is  to  be  found  in  the  Aurora  of 
August  1 6,  1808. 

335 


TABLE  OF  REFERENCES 

7.  Page  41.     Upon   the    "would   have  been  a  Tory" 
story,  see  the  Democratic  Press  of  June  5,  8,  10,  15,  1807. 

8.  Page  45.     Philadelphia  Magazines  and  their  Contrib 
utors,  by  A.  H.  Smyth,  p.  13. 

9.  Page  47.     The  review  of  Inchiquin  in  the  Portfolio 
is  in  the  numbers  for  April  and  May,  1811  (v.  300,  385). 
The  Quarterly  Review  article  is  in  the  number  for  Janu 
ary,  1814.     That  this  article  was  written  bySoutheyis  sus 
pected  by  J.  K.  Paulding  in  his  reply  to  the  article. 

10.  Page  51.     For  the  toast  to  "  our  King  in  England," 
see  Mr.   Ingersoll's  Second  War,  vol.  ii.  p.  47.     Ames's 
expression    in    favor   of  "separate   orders"   is  quoted  in 
Randall's  Jefferson,  vol.  i.  p.  583  ;  from  works  of  Fisher 
Ames,  by  Seth  Ames,  vol.  i.  p.  324.     The  quotation  from 
Morris  is  from  a  speech  in  the  Convention  of  1787,  Elliot's 
Debates,  vol.   v.  p.  271.     The    political    orator  quoted  is 
John  Binns  in  his  "long  talk"   before  the  Tammany  So 
ciety  of  Philadelphia  on  May  12,  1807;  Democratic  Press 
of  May  15,  1807. 

11.  Page  54.     The  story  of  the  feeling  of  the  city  aris 
tocracy  during  the  Snyder-Ross  campaign  is  taken  from 
Binns' s  Recollections,  p.  210.     Dr.  Rush's  warning  to  his 
son  Richard  appears  from  a  letter  of  the  latter  to  Dr.  Rush 
in  the  Philadelphia  Library.     The  story  of  Binns  entering 
the  bank  directory  is  from  his  Recollections,  pp.  260,  261. 

12.  Page  54.      Recollections,  p.   206.     There  was  evi 
dently  some  confusion  in  Binns' s  mind  as  to  dates,  but  this 
is  not  material  to  the  gist  of  the  story. 

13.  Page  61.     Democratic  Press  of  March  4,  1811.    The 
review  is  in  the  issue  of  February  i,  1811. 

14.  Page  63.     This  removal  and  appointment  are  not 
stated  in  Mr.  Martin's  Bench  and  Bar,  but  are  to  be  found 
noticed  in  the  Democratic  Press  of  March  9,  1809. 

336 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

15.  Page  71.     Second  War,  vol.  i.  p.  363. 

1 6.  Page  73.     I  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  copy  of  the 
Democratic  Press  of  the  dates  in  question,  but  the  articles 
are  repeatedly  referred  to  in  the  letters  of  Mr.  Rush. 

17.  Page  75.      Annals  of  Congress    (Thirteenth  Con 
gress),  1813-14,  vol.  i.  pp.  352,  353. 

1 8.  Page  77.      Annals    of  Congress    (Thirteenth  Con 
gress),  1813-14,  vol.  iii.  pp.  808-810. 

19.  Page  80.     Number  for  February  22,  1814. 

20.  Page  81.     Annals   of   Congress  (Thirteenth    Con 
gress),  1813-14,  vol.  i.  pp.  1421-1425. 

21.  Page   83.     Annals  of   Congress    (Thirteenth    Con 
gress),  1813-14,  vol.  iii.  p.  812. 

22.  Page  84.     Washington    Letter   in    the   Democratic 
Press  of  January  17,  1814,  from  "Tyro." 

23.  Page  85.     For  details  of  contest  with  Mr.  Stockton, 
see  Annals  of  Congress  (Thirteenth  Congress),  1813-14, 
vol.  i.  pp.  1002,  1005,  1015,  1016. 

24.  Page  86.     History,  vol.  ii.  p.  417,  etc. 

25.  Page  88.     Second  War,  vol.  iv.  p.  280. 

26.  Page  97.     This  account  was  published  in  the  Wash 
ington   Globe    of  August  12,    1836,   and  reprinted  in  the 
Pennsylvanian. 

27.  Page   104.     I  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  to 
what  this  refers. 

28.  Page  139.     This  translation  was  published  in  Hall's 
Law  Journal,  vol.  vi.  pp.  153-276. 

29.  Page  141.     I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  this  state 
ment,  but  it  is  made  both  in  the  sketch  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  in 
the  Democratic  Review  of  October,  1839,  vol.  vi.  pp.  339 
-354,  and  by  Judge  Sharswood  in  his  obituary  notice  read 
before  the  American  Philosophical  Society.     Bulwer  was 
among  Mr.  Ingersoll's  occasional  correspondents. 

«  337 


TABLE  OF  REFERENCES 

30.  Page  144.     The  address  on  "  Europe  long  ago"  is 
printed  in  the  Democratic  Review,  vol.  v.,  January,  1839, 
pp.  61-75.    The  other  addresses  were  all  printed  in  pam 
phlet  form,  and  are  to  be  found  in  the  Philadelphia  Library, 
and  doubtless  in  other  places. 

31.  Page  149.     Parton's  Jackson,  vol.  ii.  p.  257,  from 
Epes  Sargent's  Life  of  Clay. 

32.  Page  153.     A  meagre  report  of  its  proceedings  is  to 
be  found  in  Poulson's  Daily  Advertiser  and  in  the  United 
States  Gazette  for  August,  1825.     The  fact  as  to  Mr.  Inger- 
soll's  support  of  railroads  is  taken  from  the  sketch  of  him 
in  the  Democratic  Review  of  October,  1839. 

33.  Page  154.      Its  proceedings  are  reported  in  Niles1  s 
Register,  1827,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  388,  etc. 

34.  Page  165.    This  letter  is  to  be  found  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian  of  June  29,  1837.     Mr.  Ingersoll  kept  carefully  the 
papers  and  reports  referring  to  his  accounts  as  District  At 
torney,  and  had  them  all  bound  up.     I  do  not  see  any 
need  of  giving  references  to  them,  as  the  charges  are  no 
longer  of  interest. 

35.  Page  171.     Adams's  Diary,  vol.  viii.  p.  442. 

36.  Page  176.     Second  War,  vol.  ii.  p.  269. 

37.  Page  177.     Schouler's  History,  vol.  iv.  p.  72. 

38.  Page  183.     This  fact  appears  from  a  Diary,  only  a 
small  portion  of  which  has  been  preserved,  in  which  are  the 
following  entries  :  "  Saturday  1  March. — Called  on  Mr.  N. 
Biddle  and  informed  him  as  I  said  to  him  as  a  matter  of 
feeling  as  well  as  propriety  after  our  relations  that  I  am 
about  to  take  a  public  part  against  the  bank. 

"  Monday  3  March. — Called  again  on  Mr.  Biddle — fear 
ing  on  reflection  that  I  might  have  been  misunderstood  by 
him  on  Saturday — and  fully  explained  to  him  my  opinions 
and  views." 

338 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

39.  Page  183.     These  facts  are  stated  on  the  authority 
of  manuscript  copies  of  the  resolutions,  and  of  memoranda 
upon  them,  in  Mr.  Ingersoll's  handwriting. 

40.  Page  184.     The  authority  for  these  statements  is  the 
sketch  in  the  Democratic  Review  for  October,  1839. 

41.  Page  1 88.      Diary  of  Mr.  Ingersoll. 

42.  Page  1 88.     Thirty  Years'  View,  vol.  ii.  p.  305. 

43.  Page  189.     This  address  was  printed  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian  of  July  29,  1835,  anc^  was  reprinted  in  the  Wash 
ington  Globe  of  August  12,  1835. 

44.  Page  195.     These  resolutions  are  contained  in  news 
paper   clippings    preserved  by  Mr.   Ingersoll,   in  a  book 
kept  for  the  purpose.     I  think  they  are  from  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian,  and  doubtless  they  were  printed  in  other  papers 
also. 

45.  Page  196.     A  copy  of  this  opinion  is  in  my  posses 
sion  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  "Opinion  of  the  Hon.  John 
Fox,  President  Judge  of  the  Judicial  District  composed  of 
the  Counties  of  Bucks  and  Montgomery,  against  the  Exer 
cise  of  Negro  Suffrage  in  Pennsylvania  ;  also  the  Vote  of 
the  Members  of  the  Pennsylvania  Convention  on  the  Mo 
tion  of  Mr.  Martin  to  insert  the  Word  '  White'  as  one  of  the 
proposed  Amendments  to  the  Constitution.     Harrisburg, 
1838." 

46.  Page  214.      My  authorities  for    the   statements  in 
the  text  upon  this  subject  are  newspaper  clippings  pre 
served  by  Mr.  Ingersoll.     They  are  from  various  papers, 
among  others  the  United  States  Gazette  of  December  8 
and  10,  1838,  and  of  February  14,  1839,  and  the  Natchez 
Free   Trader  of  August  12,    1839.     Mr.  John  Ingersoll's 
answer  to  the  denial  of  his  agency  is  dated  December  19, 
1838,  and  is  from  some  newspaper,  but  I  cannot  discover 
what  one.     I  presume  the  controversy  was  reprinted  in  the 

339 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

Philadelphia  newspapers.     See  also  Benton'  s  Thirty  Years' 
View,  vol.  ii.  p.  368. 

47.  Page  224.     See  Act  of  25th  of  March,  1843,  P.  L. 
115.     The  earlier  apportionment  was  under  the  Act  of  gth 
June,  1832,  P.  L.  p.  560. 

48.  Page  228.     Mr.  Ingersoll's  letter  was  dated  Septem 
ber  13,  1841,  and  was  printed  in  the  Globe  and  reprinted 
into  other  papers.     The  review  was  in  the  Washington 
National  Intelligencer  of  September  30,  1841. 

49.  Page   230.     He  so  states  in  his  "African  Slavery 
in  America,"  p.  17. 

50.  Page  231.     So  Mr.  Ingersoll  stated  in  debate  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Constitutional  Convention  of  1837,  vol.  vii. 
p.  90. 

51.  Page  235.     For  the  quotation  from  Mr.  Adams,  see 
Congressional  Globe  (Twenty-Eighth  Congress),  First  Ses 
sion,  p.  194  ;  for  William  Lloyd  Garrison's  opinion,  see  Wil 
son's  Slave  Power,  vol.  i.  p.  569,  570,  and  see  also  p.  644, 
and  vol.  ii.  p.  107  ;  for  James  Wilson,  ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  207  ; 
Horace  Mann,  ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  227  ;  Samuel  May,  ibid., 
vol.  ii.  p.  154;  Henry  Wilson,  ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  637,  and 
see  vol.  ii.  p.  116  ;  Wendell  Phillips,  ibid.,  vol.  i.  pp.  479, 
569,  and  see  p.  644,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  56  ;  for  the  fact  as  to 
the  rejected  professor  at  Harvard,  ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  444  ;  for 
the  address  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  ibid.,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  424,  444  ;  von  Hoist's  History,  vol.  v.  (1854-56)  p.  62  ; 
for  the  opposition  vi  et  armis,  Wilson's  Slave  Power,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  325-327  ;  for  the  Massachusetts  laws  against  the  law  of 
1793,  Curtis' s  Webster,  vol.  ii.  p.  386,  and  see  pp.  424,  427  ; 
for  the  Boston  resolutions  of  1850,  Curtis' s  Webster,  vol.  ii. 
p.  489  ;  for  the  resolutions  of  the  American  and  New  Eng 
land  anti-slavery  societies,  WTilson's  Slave  Power,  vol.  i. 
p.  571,  572  ;  for  the  resolutions  of  the  two  State  societies, 

340 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

Curtis' s  Webster,  vol.  ii.  pp.  399,  400  ;  for  Henry  Wilson's 
statement  that  a  class  of  abolitionists  agreed  with  Garrison, 
Slave  Power,  vol.  i.  p.  470  ;  and  for  his  evidence  of  their 
general  hatred  of  the  Union,  ibid.,  vol.  i.  pp.  568-575,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  107,  1 1 6,  207,  332,  695,  and  see  also  von  Hoist's 
History,  vol.  v.  (1854-56)  p.  215,  note,  and  vol.  ii.  (1828- 
46)  p.  630,  and  Ticknor's  Life  and  Letters,  vol.  ii.  p. 

349- 

52.  Page  236.     For  Webster's  opinion,  Curtis' s  Web 
ster,  vol.  ii.  p.  427  ;  for  Raymond's,  von  Hoist's  History, 
vol.  v.  (1854-56),  foot-note,  p.  68. 

53.  Page  236.     History,  vol.  iv.  p.  423. 

54.  Page  246.      Congressional  Globe  (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress),  First  Session,  Appendix,  pp. 69-7 5. 

55.  Page   247.      Congressional   Globe  (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress),  Second  Session,  pp.  644,  645. 

56.  Page  249.     New  York  Herald  of  January  29,  1843. 

57.  Page  255.     For  the  facts  cited  in  regard  to  Texas, 
see  von  Hoist's  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.  (1828- 
46)  pp.  552-569,  586,   587;  see  also  Schouler's  History, 
vol.  iv.  pp.  247,  303. 

58.  Page  256.     Schouler's  article  on  "  President  Polk' s 
administration,"  in  Atlantic  Monthly  for  September,  1895, 
PP-  375.  376  ;  see  also  August  number,  pp.  235-243. 

59.  Page  259.     The  original  of  these  memoranda  has 
been  lost,  but  Mr.  Ingersoll  quoted  at  some  length  from 
them  in  his  sketch  of  Texas.     My  citations  are  from  this 
source,  and  contain  everything  of  any  importance  from 
them. 

60.  Page  270.     See  his  speech  in  Appendix  to  Congres 
sional  Globe  (Twenty-Ninth  Congress),  Second  Session,  p. 
128. 

61.  Page  271.     This  is  stated  on  the  authority  of  a  letter 

341 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

> 

from  Mr.  Ingersoll  to  Mr.  Gilpin,  dated  January  9,  1846, 
remarking  how  odd  it  was  that  he  should  be  placed  over 
committees  against  him  both  on  Texas  and  on  Oregon, 
and  adding  that  the  resolution  lately  reported  (January  5) 
was  a  "  come  by  chance." 

62.  Page  271.     Speech  in  Appendix  to   Congressional 
Globe  (Twenty-Ninth  Congress),  First  Session,  p.  285. 

63.  Page  272.      Speech  in  Appendix  to    Congressional 
Globe  (Twenty-Ninth  Congress),  First  Session,  p.  99. 

64.  Page  277.     Dr.  Wharton  (International  Law  Digest, 
second  edition,  §  21,  pp.  67-69)  doubts  whether  it  is  pos 
sible  to  admit  to  its  full  extent  the  principle  that  we  cannot 
subject  to  our  municipal  laws  aliens  who  violate  those  laws 
under  direction  of  their  sovereign.     And  he  refers  to  Gre- 
ville  (Memoirs  :  Reign  of  Queen  Victoria,  vol.  i.  p.  334, 
sub  March  12,  1841),  to  show  that  Senior  and  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst  doubted  very  much  the  soundness  of  the  English 
contention.     The  great  authors  on  international  law  seem 
to  have  been  quoted  on  both  sides. 

65.  Page  277.     Speech  in  Congressional  Globe  (Twenty- 
Ninth  Congress),  First  Session,  p.  642. 

66.  Page  278.      His  two  speeches  are  in  Congressional 
Globe  (Twenty-Seventh  Congress),   First  Session,   p.    75, 
and  ibid.  (Twenty-Ninth  Congress),  First  Session,  p.  344. 

67.  Page  286.     Curtis' s  Webster,  vol.  ii.  pp.  279-281. 

68.  Page  288.     Von  Hoist's  United  States,  vol.  iii.  (1846 
-50)  p.   502,  foot-note  ;    in  Memoriam  B.  O.  Tayloe,  p. 
109.      See  also  J.  Q.  Adams's  Diary,  vol.  xi.  p.  249,  and 
vol.  xii.  p.  214. 

69.  Page  319.       Congressional  Globe  (Twenty-Seventh 
Congress),  Second  Session,  Appendix,  p.  306. 

70.  Page  323.    The  facts  in  regard  to  Joseph  Bonaparte 
are  taken  from  a  diary  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  from  private  let- 

342 


TABLE   OF   REFERENCES 

ters,  from  the  Second  War,  and  from  Georges    Berlin's 
Joseph  Bonaparte  en  Amerique. 

71.  Page  323.     His  Influence  of  America  on  the  Mind, 

P-  13. 

72.  Page  324.     Journal  of  House  of  Representatives, 
February    14,    1831,  p.  342  ;  see  also  ibid.,  pp.  349,  357, 
474,  482,  501,  528  ;  see  ibid.,  p.  27,  for  his  resolution  in 
regard  to  imprisonment  for  debt. 

73.  Page  326.     Diary  of  J.  Q.  Adams,  vol.  vi.  p.  384. 


343 


INDEX. 


Abolition  agitation,  222,  223,  231-246,  330,  331. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,    114,  115,  116,  120,  134,  234,  240-242,  251- 

253-  326. 

"African  Slavery  in  America,"  330. 
Alston,  Joseph,  29,  31. 

Americanism  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  43-45,  141,  317. 
Ames,  Fisher,  in  favor  of  separate  orders  in  the  State,  51. 
Aristocracy  of  early  days,  50,  52. 

Bank  of  Augusta  vs.  Earle,  293,  294. 

Bank  of  United  States,  166-178,  181-184,  211-214. 

removal  of  deposits  from,  183,  184. 
Banking  system,  185,  199-202. 
Bar,  the,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  income  in  1812,  67. 

Chief  Justice  Sharswood's  estimate  of  him  as  a  lawyer,  294-296. 

his  practice  and  methods,  292-299. 

in  Washington,  meeting  to  form  a  Law  Library,  124. 
Barre,  Colonel,  14,  15. 
Benton,  Thomas  H.,  188. 

Biddle,  Nicholas,  91,  166,  167,  171-174,  176,  177,  213,  214. 
Binney,  Horace,  speaks  of  the  "  great  subversion  in  1801,"  54. 
Binns,  John,  41,  51,  53,  60. 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  103,  321-323. 

Napoleon,  49,  92,  145-147. 
British,  the,  early  hatred  of  Americans,  47. 
Brown,  General  Jacob,  72,  157. 
Buchanan,  James,  272,  273,  314. 
Buckshot  War,  220. 
Bush-Hill  address,  189-194. 

345 


INDEX 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  265-267,  272,  273. 

Canal  Convention  of  1825,  153. 

"  Caroline"  dispute,  275-279,  281. 

Children,  instances  of  large  numbers  of,  127,  128. 

"  Chiomara,"  33. 

Clay,  Henry,  109,  114,  126,  133,  134. 

Coles,  Governor  Edward,  134. 

Columbus,  witty  remark  of  a  lady  in  regard  to,  304.  v 

Common  people,  how  they  come  to  the  front  in  times  of  revolution, 

3i9- 
Congress,  powers  of  committee  of,  188. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  campaigns  for,  67,  207-211,  219-224,  290,  291. 
course  in,  generally,  227-230,  249,  253. 
speech  on  the  twenty-first  rule,  238-246. 
speech  on  the  tariff,  247. 

speech  on  Mr.  Tyler's  exchequer  plan,  248,  249. 
contests  with  Mr.  Adams,  251-253. 
views  as  to  function  of  Middle  States,  251,  252. 
course  on  Texas  question,  256-258,  268-270. 
diary  of  events  during  Texas  negotiations,  259-268. 
account  of  final  steps  in  annexation,  269,  270. 
connection  with  Oregon  dispute,  270-272. 
reproaches  the  Southerners  for  their  opposition  to  Oregon, 

271. 

conflict  with  Mr.  Webster,  277-291. 
Convention,  Canal,  or  Improvement  of  1825,  153. 

Constitutional,  of  1837,  195-207. 

Corporations,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  minority  report  on,  200-202. 
Court,  Mr.  Ingersoll  appointed  Clerk  of  Orphans',  40,  63. 

United  States  Supreme,  copy  of  rules  hardly  to  be  obtained,  130. 

judges  dining  out,  123. 
See  Bar,  the. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  no,  115,  116,  134. 
Cuba,  ii2,  113,  130,  263. 
Currency.     See  Banking  System. 

Dallas,  Alexander  J.,  letters  to,  65,  89-91,  101-104. 
Dallas,  George  M.,  103,  172. 

346 


INDEX 

Dartmouth  College  case,  doctrine  of,  192,  199. 
Davis,  Jefferson,  288. 
Decatur,  Commodore  Stephen,  72. 
Democracy  in  America,  growth  of,  49-55. 
Mr.  Ingersoll's  views  upon,  318-320. 
Dennie,  Joseph,  37,  44. 
Despard,  Colonel,  execution  of,  35. 
Dickinson,  Daniel  S.,  280. 
District  Attorney  of  United  States,  94,  160. 

charges  against  Mr.  Ingersoll  of  improper  conduct  as,  162- 

166. 

Drew  -vs.  Swift,  297,  298. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  his  reply  to  the  Quarterly  Review,  48. 


Earle,  Bank  of  Augusta  vs.,  293,  294. 

Thomas,  183. 

Education.     See  Public  Schools. 
"  Edwy  and  Elgiva,"  32. 

England,  her  too  great  influence  in  America,  305,  325. 
"  Europe  long  ago,"  144-147. 
Exchequer  system,  Mr.  Tyler's  plan  for,  248,  249. 


Federalists,  views  of  the  old,  50,  51,  85-87. 

Findlay,  William,  106. 

Florida  campaign,  150-153. 

Foreign  Affairs,  chairman  of,  Mr.  Ingersoll  as,  229,  256-273. 

"  Foreign  Missions,  Law  of,"  139,  326,  328. 

Foreign  missions,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  views  on,  157,  249,  250. 

Forsyth,  John,  29,  73,  167,  275,  276. 

France,  early  triumphs  of  the  republic,  49. 

excitement  against,  in  1798,  30,  31. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  desire  for  trade  with,  157. 
interest  in,  320-323. 

personal  arrest  in,  witnessed  by  Mr.  Ingersoll,  147. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  16. 
"  Free  ships,  free  goods,"  80,  85. 

French  mission,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  nomination  for  and  defeat,  291, 
347 


INDEX 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  234. 

Gentry  of  colonial  times  a  true  aristocracy,  50,  52. 

Gilmer,  Thomas  W.,  259,  260. 

Gilpin,  Henry  D.,  203,  204,  210,  294. 

Hiester,  Joseph,  105,  106. 
Hull,  General  William,  72. 

"  Improvement  of  Government,"  140. 

"  Inchiquin,"  44-48. 

Industry  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  139,  140. 

"  Influence  of  America  on  the  Mind,"  140. 

Ingersoll,  Jared,  the  elder,  14-18. 

Ingersoll,  Jared,  the  younger,  18-25. 

Ingersoll,  John,  213-215. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  149-153,  160,  170,  173,  174,  177-184,  189-191. 
refunding  of  his  fine,  250,  251. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  pamphlet  on,  origin  of,  250,  251. 
Jay's  treaty,  proceedings  at  meeting  to  denounce,  28. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  73. 
Jones,  William,  65. 
Judiciary,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  plans  for,  in  Constitutional  Convention, 

198. 
"  Julian,  a  tragedy,"  328. 

King,  Rufus,  33,  42,  56,  107. 

La  Fayette,  140-143. 

Law  of  nations,  Mr.  Ingersoll  favored  a  liberal,  324-326. 

Lawyers.     See  Bar,  the. 

Lewis,  Major  William  B.,  262. 

Livingston,  Edward,  172-176. 

Lloyd,  Governor  Edward,  125. 

Madison,  President,  45,  97,  231,  244,  245,  326. 
Matrimonial  venture,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  aid  invoked,  99. 
.348 


INDEX 

Maury,  Mrs.,  314-316. 
McClenachan,  Blair,  28. 
McDuffie,  George,  174,  175,  323. 
McKean,  Thomas,  Governor,  55. 
McLeod,  Alexander,  276-278. 
McMichael,  Morton,  221. 
Mechanics'  lien  laws,  324. 
Mexican  War,  254,  255,  270. 

See  Texas. 

Middle  States,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  views  as  to  their  function,  251,  252. 
Mobs,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  views  as  to,  319,  320. 
Monroe,  President,  98,  117,  127,  150. 
Moore,  Thomas,  39. 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  what  he  thought  the  Senate  should  be,  51. 

Naylor,  Charles,  208-209,  219-221. 

Negro  suffrage  in  Pennsylvania,  196. 

Nelson,  Admiral,  72. 

Northeastern  boundary  question,  278,  279,  282,  283. 

Nullification,  160. 

Office,  removals  from,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  ideas  upon,  226. 

Oregon,  270-272. 

Orphans'  Court,  Mr.  Ingersoll  appointed  Clerk  of,  40,  63. 

Paper  money,  200-202. 

Parties,  political.     See  Politics. 

Partisan,  offensive,  226. 

Patriotism.     See  Americanism. 

Paulding,  J.  K.,  reply  to  the  Quarterly  Review,  48. 

Penn,  William,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  address  to  commemorate  his  landing, 

143- 

Phillips,  Wendell,  234. 
Poinsett,  Joel  R.,  in,  116. 

Political  views  of  Mr.  Ingersoll,  growth  of,  48-60. 
Politics  early  in  the  century,  37-44,  52-62,  105,  106. 
irritations  of,  204-206. 

349 


INDEX 

Politics,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  entrance  into,  48,  55,  56,  60-63. 
called  home  "  to  save  the  ticket,"  225. 
ideas  on  removals  from  office,  226. 
See  Congress. 
Polk,  James  K.,  272,  273. 
Popular  government,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  belief  in,  318-320. 

See  Democracy. 
Portfolio,  the,  32,  33,  37. 
Press,  the,  venality  of,  144. 
Princeton  College,  29,  30. 
Protection,  208,  246,  247. 

Public  schools,  Mr.  Ingersoll's  course  upon,  in  Convention  of  1837, 
197,  198. 

Railroads,  Mr.  Ingersoll  advocates  them  in  1825,  153. 

Reciprocity,  157. 

"  Recollections,"  327-328. 

Reed,  Joseph,  19. 

Removal  of  deposits  from  United  States  Bank,  183,  184. 

"  Rights  and  Wrongs,"  41,  324. 

"  River  Rights,"  188. 

Robins,  John  J.,  291. 

Roman  Catholics,  316,  317, 

Rush,  Benjamin,  DrM  53. 

Richard,  29,  54,  72,  105-107. 

Secession,  outbreak  of,  331-333. 

Senate,  United  States,  Mr.  Ingersoll  proposed  for,  161. 

Sergeant,  John,  203. 

bar-meeting  on  death  of,  307,  308. 
Seward,  William  H.,  277-279,  280,  281. 
Sharswood's,  Chief  Justice,  estimate  of  Mr.  Ingersoll  as  a  lawyer, 

294-296. 
Slavery,  191,  230-236,  330,  331. 

See  African  Slavery. 
Smith,  F.  O.  J.,  282,  283. 

Snyder,  Simon,  election  as  governor,  53,  58,  106. 
Stamp  Act,  the,  15-18. 

350 


INDEX 

Stevens,  Tbaddeus,  202. 
Stockton,  Richard,  84. 
Sub-Treasury  system,  215-219,  250. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  early  plan  for,  217-219. 
Swift,  Drew  vs.,  297,  298. 

Tariff,  the,  154-159,  246,  247. 

See  Protection. 

Taylor,  John,  of  Caroline,  in. 
Texas,  254-270. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  diary  of  events  at  the  time  of  annexation,  259- 

268. 
plan  to  annex  by  bill,  in  case  of  defeat  of  treaty,  origin  of, 

266-268. 

the  annexationists  appealed  to  the  people  from  an  adverse  Con 
gress,  267,  268. 

"  Tory,  would  have  been  a,"  40,  207. 
Tyler,  John,  247,  248,  262,  268,  272,  273. 

United  States,  warlike  tendencies  of,  117. 

Walker,  Robert  J.,  261-263. 
War  of  1812,  history  of,  327,  328. 
/Washington,  President,  26,  27. 

dissatisfaction  against,  during  Revolution,  303. 

Washington,  entertaining  at,  early  in  the  century,  122,  123,  135,  136. 
Webster,  Daniel,  73,  77,  191-193,  274,  275,  277,  278. 

gifts  accepted  by,  288. 

Mr.  Ingersoll's  conflict  with,  278-291. 

Mr.  Benton's  estimate  of,  281. 
Wilkins,  William,  161,  172,  175. 
Wilson,  Henry,  234. 

Wines,  native,  at  Washington  dinners,  118,  124,  128. 
Winthrop,  Robert  C.,  272,  286. 
Wright,  Governor  Robert,  126. 

THE  END. 
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